A long-proposed hovercraft route connecting Toronto with Niagara Region appears to still have some life, with the first high-speed vessels now expected to shuttle passengers across Lake Ontario as early as 2025.

Plans for the new Toronto-St. Catharines hovercraft route from operator Hoverlink Ontario has languished in the planning stages for some time, coasting past projected opening timelines and leaving many doubting its future.

However, the project has shown some signs of life this summer, and Hoverlink now claims to be pushing forward with the ambitious commuter service.

The company plans to use vessels with a capacity of up to 180 passengers per trip, including bicycles and small luggage, using technology already in operation in Europe and other areas of the globe.

According to Hoverlink, the service "will transport people across Lake Ontario in under 30 minutes, a journey that can take up to three hours by car or bus, and up to two hours by train," linking "two of Ontario's most significant economic and tourist regions."

Hoverlink promises the service will be safe and reliable, operating year-round, regardless of weather conditions.

Hoverlink's proposed route between Toronto and St. Catharines.

As for the cost, Hoverlink promises roundtrip fares ranging from $50 to $60, which comes with an included shuttle bus service. That is only marginally more than the $42 roundtrip fare for bus or train, and at 1/3 to 1/4 the time.

If it seems too good to be true, that's because, so far, it has been.

Cross-lake services have long been proposed, and even the ones that crossed the finish line have failed miserably.

In 1998, then Ontario tourism minister Al Palladini was aboard the maiden voyage of a hydrofoil service across the lake, which was struck by a 2.5-metre wave. So, yeah, that didn't work.

But more people will remember the ill-fated attempt to connect Toronto and Rochester, NY with a catamaran ferry route. While this route did indeed enter passenger service in 2004, it suffered funding challenges and interruptions that led to its ultimate demise by 2006.

In 2017, a company called Lake Ontario Express promised to use hovercrafts to link Niagara-on-the-Lake and Port Dalhousie to Toronto. That service was aimed to be up and running by 2018, but that never happened.

Hoverlink Ontario was the next player to enter the hovercraft conversation, promising a start in service between Toronto and St. Catharines for Summer 2023, which never came to fruition.

However, the Hoverlink scheme is far from dead, and following an agreement between the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC) that leases land to the hovercraft operator, the new service is now targeting launches in late 2025 and early to mid-2026.

Hoverlink's proposed Port Weller stop in St. Catharines.

Once operational, Hoverlink would mark the first inter-city hovercraft transit system in North America — a first of its kind that would make trips between Toronto and Niagara Region faster than even some trips between Toronto and other parts of Toronto.

Hoverlink promises just 30-minute travel times by travelling just over one-third the distances that cars, buses, and trains have to travel around the western curve of Lake Ontario.

Hovercraft would only have to travel approximately 40 kilometres directly across the lake, compared to the 110-kilometre journey that takes two hours by bus or train and 1hr45min by car.

As the proposal gains steam, Hoverlink will be hosting a pair of information sessions at OCAD U in Toronto on September 9 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m..