Visitors enjoy taking ferries, but they are limited by their timetables and routes. Taxis and buses are also popular, but the former are expensive and the latter are again limited: try catching a bus to Harbour Road.

Water taxis could be a useful tourist attraction in their own right, giving visitors a new and flexible method of getting around at no expense to the public purse.

If successful, they would reward an innovative businessman and show that individual enterprise has a valuable role to play in Bermuda. If they fail, no-one loses except the businessman who is taking on all the risk.

So why is the Ministry of Transport consulting with the Bermuda Industrial Union on the service's advisability? Transport Minister Ewart Brown has rightly criticised the taxi industry's inability to speak with one voice. To that end, he announced that the BIU, which has a taxi division, would be the spokesman for the industry.

Leaving aside the problems which may arise from having a trade union represent the taxi owners, who are in essence a collection of small businessman, all of them competing with each other, it would be strange if the decision on whether a water taxi service is advisable should rest with the union.

Presumably Dr. Brown is not giving veto power to the BIU, but is simply seeking its input. BIU president Derrick Burgess said last week that the service should wait until the land taxi business was running properly.

For the taxi industry, which is supposed to get a centralised dispatch service, that makes sense. But taxi drivers are unlikely to welcome a new competitor under any circumstances.

Dr. Brown has the great responsibility of making a decision on whether a water taxi service is in Bermuda's best interests, even if it hurts some taxi drivers.

Any such service must be regulated with a proper rate structure to prevent customers from being exploited or ignored.

But any service which increases Bermuda's attractiveness to visitors should be welcomed. If enough new features are offered, more visitors will come to the Island and that is in the best interests of everyone, including the taxi industry.

It is not clear why Dr. Brown went a step further and suggested to the union that it should consider forming a water taxi division itself. Does this mean that the as yet unnamed businessman will have to join the BIU to get the business started, or enrol his as yet nonexistent staff in the union? By all means, Dr. Brown should consult the BIU. But the BIU should not be offered a de facto veto by saying it wants to wait for an unspecified period of time.

If Dr. Brown backs the idea of better using the Island's water for transport then he should take advice from all concerned and proceed with a policy which he and his Government believe is best for Bermuda.