If taking a 40-minute ferry ride in the middle of winter to get from Providence to Bristol wasn’t on your Christmas list — it seems like you have lots of company.

This past Thursday, the state officially launched its emergency ferry service between India Point in Providence and downtown Bristol as a means to hopefully alleviate traffic going through the I-195 corridor and the beleaguered Washington Bridge, and to provide another option for people who commute to and from the West to the East Bay.

While we can praise the Rhode Island Department of Transportation for their willingness to think outside the box when handling the ongoing disruption caused by the bridge closure, the verdict has been pretty clear even in just this short sample size that the service is not going to be utilized in any meaningful way, as the boats have been essentially empty during their runs, with some even reporting their scheduled trips were canceled when they arrived due to a lack of passengers.

The state entered into three contracts with three ferry providers without a bidding process, which to be fair was done to save time and get the service up and running at a time when it seemed like it might be crucial to do so. However, as the details of those contracts have come out, it is clear that this experiment is not worth the cost; which could be as high as $5 million if these boats run each day through March.

Thankfully, included within the contracts is a clause that the state can end its service with the ferry providers at any time with two weeks notice. We think they should put that notice in immediately, if they haven’t already done so.

The primary reason for this stance is that this alternative means of travel isn’t really saving anyone much time. DOT is suffering from their own success, ironically enough, given that the bypass that was opened about a week after the initial bridge closing has actually done tremendously well at funneling people through the area. Sure, there is some increased traffic going east as lanes merge beyond the bridge, but it’s manageable. Meanwhile, traffic westward into Providence (even at rush hour) isn’t even drastically different than before the bridge closed.

As a result, it hardly makes sense for someone to drive into India Point, or to Colt State Park in Bristol, just to take a bus to a ferry, only to land in a place where they likely don’t have a familiar means of transportation to get to where they ultimately need to go. Unlike larger cities like Boston and New York, with their sprawling subways and well established bus routes, Rhode Island is not set up for this kind of simple, point-to-point public transportation.

There is no need to spend further taxpayer money on the ferry idea given the results thus far. Unless there is an appetite to try and utilize one ferry as a potential tourism driver between the East Bay and Providence in the summer time, we think this is one where DOT would be better off cutting its losses and moving on.