---
title: "Toronto's first electric ferry is on its way, expected to arrive in December"
description: "The Lady of the Quays, which holds 650 passengers and 14 vehicles, has been towed from a Romanian shipyard to Istanbul and will travel across the Atlantic, arriving on Toronto's waterfront in December."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/on/toronto-2026/news/toronto-electric-ferry-lady-of-quays-december-2026"
last_updated: "2026-11-07T17:39:00.522Z"
---

Toronto's first electric ferry has been towed from a Romanian shipyard to Istanbul and will travel across the Atlantic Ocean to arrive in the city in December, Global News reported on November 5.

The City of Toronto confirmed the ferry, called the Lady of the Quays, holds up to 650 passengers and 14 vehicles, according to Global News. The City's project page says it will replace the Ongiara, the only vehicle ferry in the fleet certified for icy winter waters. All four existing ferries are between 61 and 90 years old.

Abi Thomas, the City's General Manager of Fleet Services, told Global News in an emailed statement that the completed vessel will be loaded onto a ship in Istanbul and transported across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean and up the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario. Thomas told Global News that residents will be able to track the journey online once it begins.

## Aging fleet on a busy route

Global News reported that "about 1.4 million passengers are carried across the city's inner harbour" by the current fleet.

The second new ferry, the Toronto Islander, will replace the William Inglis, which struck a wharf in 2023 after losing propulsion. In 2022, a second ferry, the Sam McBride, also struck a wharf and injured several passengers, leading the Transportation Safety Board to rule that the City's safety protocols had been lacking at the time, Global News reported.

A second new vessel called the Toronto Islander is due for delivery in early 2027, though Global News reported that the City provided no details on its construction status.

## A delayed procurement

The procurement process to acquire new ferries began more than a decade ago, with several delays caused by council changing design requirements, Global News reported. In 2018, council voted to switch to hybrid diesel-electric propulsion, then changed to fully electric models in 2022.

The City also discovered that staff had not accounted for charging infrastructure at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, Global News reported. That discovery led the city to move oversight of its ferries from parks and recreation to its fleet management division.

Once the Lady of the Quays arrives, lake trials and crew training must be completed before passengers can board. Global News reported it is unclear how long that testing will take. Residents who want to follow City Council decisions about the ferry service and other transit commitments can track the mayor's promises at [/on/toronto-2026/tracker](/on/toronto-2026/tracker).

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