A deluxe, five-story-tall catamaran with room for 774 passengers and 220 cars will soon be zipping across Lake Ontario between Rochester and Toronto at over 80 kilometers an hour.

　　Called the Spirit of Ontario, it will be the first car-and-passenger "fast ferry" operating on the Great Lakes and only the second plying US waters. Fast ferries carry 50 or more passengers and their vehicles and pierce the waves at speeds above 47 kph.

　　In contrast, Europe has no fewer than 100 such ferries. At least 40 others skirt the coasts of Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

　　After a half-century hiatus, congested US highways, backups at Canadian border crossings and Australian and European breakthroughs in high-performance marine technology are generating a renewed interest in waterborne travel in North America.

　　Two more high-speed car ferries will be launched in late spring - one in Alaska, the other on Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Muskegon, Michigan. In addition, itineraries are under review in Hawaii, Cleveland, Erie, Pennsylvania, Racine, Wisconsin, and along the East and West coasts.

　　"It has to be a viable commercial route. These are expensive boats," said Howard Thomas, president of Canadian American Transportation Systems, the company behind the US$42.5 million Spirit of Ontario ferry, which plans to sail the ferry two or three times a day from Rochester starting on May 1.

　　"If you're going to mortgage yourself at that level, you really have to have a steady volume of passengers," he said.

　　The 85.2-meter-long, twin-hulled, Austal-built catamaran is expected to dock in mid April at its new home port in Rochester.

　　It features two movie theaters, duty-free shopping, a business computer center, a restaurant and a bar and a children's play area with padded jungle gym.

　　On its round-the-world voyage from Australia, the ferry sustained a 7.5-meter scrape and gash while docking in New York City on April 1.

　　But its maiden voyage, a US$500-a-berth charity extravaganza, is still scheduled for April 30.

　　The Spirit of Ontario is similar to The Cat, a 88-kph Incat ferry that has hustled between Bar Harbor, Maine, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, since 1998.

　　Accommodating up to 900 passengers, 240 cars and 16 motor coaches, it runs from May 21 to October 18.

　　"We took a six-hour crossing by traditional ferry down to two hours and 45 minutes," said Risteen Masters, marketing director for Canadian operator Bay Ferries Ltd. "Instead of being stuck in traffic, you can be having lunch or watching a movie. If you're a business commuter, you can be working."

　　The Rochester-based ferry will make the Toronto crossing in about two hours and 15 minutes. Ordinarily, the 275-kilometer road trip takes three to four hours.

　　The fare will be US$28 to walk aboard and US$40 for most cars.

　　More than US$500 million have been invested by the US government for ferry transportation over the last six years, said John Snyder, editor of Marine Log's Ferries & Fast Craft News in New York.

　　Snyder said the emerging US fast ferry industry is likely to be boosted by growing interest from the Pentagon in speedy vessels that transport large numbers of troops and military supplies.

　　(The Associated Press)