Sea Taxi

All About Sea Taxis

In the past years, sea taxis were given a permit in Istanbul. If you have already been to Istanbul or are here and couldn’t see any sea taxis, that would be the main reason. But, luckily, as of 2021, they are back on track! The main objective of bringing sea taxis back to the field is to reduce pollution. Now you can discover Istanbul and its both continents by going back and forth on a taxi on the sea!

Transportation in Istanbul is given the utmost importance as this is a huge city with millions living in it. Naturally, various transportation services are provided, and many more emerge as the days go by, such as sea taxis. We can define sea taxis as a local transportation service in Istanbul that has a capacity of 10 people. The sea taxis operate 24/7 with more than 20 destinations. They mostly work better when people reside on one side and work on the other side of Istanbul as they would need the fastest solution to get into their work. There are other local transportation services here in Istanbul, but you can’t feel how the sea air feels except for ferries. As you can imagine, ferries are mostly crowded, and there are some hours and routes for the ferries. Sea taxis don’t have routes or hours. You are always welcome to call a sea taxi whenever you want.

The Fares Of The Sea Taxi

The customers will be able to order or call sea taxis to where they are via IBB Deniz Taksi online application. The taxis are working with a fee charged, which increases per mile. The opening fee for boats with a capacity of 10 passengers will be 210,00 Turkish Liras (around $8.00). Still, an additional fare will be charged per mile after exceeding a certain distance.

Customers are required to pay 155,00 Turkish liras ($5.93) per mile between 1 and 4 miles, 125,00 Turkish liras ($4.78) per mile between 4 and 8 miles, and 100,00 Turkish liras ($3.83) per mile after 8 miles for sea taxis. The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality also plans to introduce the “shared taxi” concept soon, aiming to reduce the fares to a more reasonable price per passenger.

Suppose 10 people use the sea taxi together, which would fulfill the quota of the local transportation. In that case, the dolmus model can be applied. The opening fee would be 10 TL per person. According to the decision taken at the municipality meeting held on September 30, the opening fee is 100 TL for those who want to use the water taxi alone. After a certain mile is exceeded, the fee per mile will be added. For example: Uskudar-Besiktas 100 TL, Kadikoy-Beylerbeyi 361 TL, Bostanci-Kinaliada 257,5 TL, Buyukada-Heybeliada 112,8 TL, Buyukada-Maltepe trips will be 220 TL. These locations might be the primary and well-known destinations for sea taxis, but you can still choose other locations!

Sea Taxi And Other Local Transportation Services

There are other local transportation service opportunities to discover Istanbul rather than sea taxis. Buses, metrobus, dolmuş, metro, ferry, funicular and Marmaray. Of course, you need to choose the best local transportation opportunities according to your route preference. Still, sea taxis are one of the fastest local transportation opportunities you can get. To minimize the traffic problem, you can always choose sea taxis or ferry lines if you want to cross the sea and get fresh air with the sight of pigeons. Most people feed them with one of Istanbul’s famous fast-food, simit. You can also feed them with simit, which is kind of like a bagel. They would love it!

The Environmental Advantage Of Sea Taxis

Unlike the other transportations in Istanbul, sea taxis are much more environmentally friendly as they are already redesigned. The newest sea taxi design is an environmentally friendly vehicle that has been specially designed to be used by the disabled, families with strollers, and cyclists. The newest design of the sea taxis, which are entirely domestically fabricated in Halic Shipyard, belongs to Sinem Dedetas, the General Manager of City Lines. Sea taxis also attract attention with their environmental features. Five of these sea taxis, which will consume only about 3 liters of fuel per mile, will run on with electricity.

While designing the newest sea taxis, a lot of attention was paid to make sure that everyone would feel comfortable and appeal to every disability group. Disabled people, families with baby carriages, battery-powered vehicles, and cyclists will be able to use the new generation water taxis easily. The color of the first sea taxi designed and produced by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) was chosen by the people in Istanbul. The chosen color was a tone of blue color, which is called ‘Bosphorus,’ winning 150 percent of the total 36 thousand votes. This color is obviously very suitable for Istanbul’s main attraction, Bosphorus Bridge!

Would you like to try the sea taxi when you visit Istanbul? There is still a lot to improve within the environmental applications. However, it’s still a significant step to relaunch the sea taxis. Let us know your thoughts about the local transportation service opportunities and this relaunch of sea taxis! How about making a tour over the Bosphorus with sea taxis? Welcome to Istanbul and its diversity already