Water transport services are provided in many cities in the European Union (EU), connecting city districts and serving other user needs. Ferries are effective means of expanding mobility and creating additional capacity for congested city streets. To assess the potential and viability of water transport services in the city of Riga, it was necessary to evaluate many aspects: expected demand, development of coastal areas, urban and suburban residential areas, land transport network capacity, connections to land PT, technical possibilities, climatic constraints, and others. In this study, three possible governance models are evaluated from different aspects:
I) the municipality-funded model,
II) the private operator initiative model, and
III) the public-private partnership (PPP) model.