The Essex ferry reopened this morning! I am thrilled to trumpet this much anticipated news, news that awoke many Essex residents shortly before 6:30AM to the sound of crunching ice and a celebratory fog horn.

[pullquote]Many Essex area residents… will be able to recover an extra hour or two of their day while trimming fuel expenses substantially.[/pullquote]

No, I’m not announcing spring ice-out 2015. It looks like we still have a little longer to wait for the vast ice sheet to abandon Lake Champlain, but it’s time to celebrate nevertheless.

LCT (Lake Champlain Transportation) surprised Essex-Charlotte commuters today by reopening the vital mid-lake ferry service which closed in February. It turns out that one of the car ferries frozen into the Charlotte, Vermont ice for the last six weeks is actually a fortified hull ice breaker engineered to crush through ice up to 30″ thick. It remains unclear how this capability was overlooked, but an in-house LCT investigation is currently underway.

End of Commuter Hardship

Many Essex area residents who depend on the Essex-Charlotte ferry service for transportation to work, school, medical services, airlines, etc. will be able to recover an extra hour or two of their day while substantially trimming fuel expenses. And for others who have endured the ferry closure by renting or borrowing accommodations in Vermont, news that the Essex ferry reopened will certainly strike a poignant note on this beautiful April Fools’ Day.

That’s right, neighbors, I hate to burst your bubble, but today is April 1st and I simply couldn’t resist the temptation. April Fools!

Essex Ferry April Fools’ Prank

Lest you are still reading, still wondering if news that the Essex ferry reopened is too good to be true, still wondering if maybe, just maybe…

I’m sorry. Ever hear the expression “low hanging fruit”? I couldn’t resist a little April Fools’ Day prank. And while I wish that the prank were on me, that a loud crunching noise would interrupt me as I type this and draw me to the window to witness a ferry carving a tidy channel through the still substantial ice sheet, that’s unfortunately not the case. Essex ferry service is not reopened. Not yet.

But soon I hope that we’ll be announcing – for real – that a pair of ferries are once again chugging back and forth between Essex and Charlotte. Of course, then it may be a little bit like the boy who cried wolf…

LCT Update

For your information, the following update was received from LCT at 11:08AM this morning:

4/1-CHARLOTTE CROSSING STILL CLOSED due to ice in the channel.  No reopen date yet; will advise via text/email alerts when we have updates.

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