>>1290959What the other anon said. It's just too slow for any kind of commuter travel, apart from intra-port fast water taxi services. The main issue is the number of locks that need to be transited, which really slows down travel time. There's something like 20 locks between Pittsburgh and Cairo, Illinois where the Ohio meets the Mississippi. There is a company, American Cruise Lines, that operates liners that travel up the Mississippi and tributaries. But that's not a commuter system.
Commercially, there's a lot of traffic on the inland system. Pic related, the main artery is the Mississippi, with many tributaries feeding into it. These rivers run right through the heartland, so a lot of agricultural products and raw materials are brought downstream to New Orleans, loaded onto ships for overseas trade. I forget the exact numbers, but downstream cargo transport is more efficient than rail.
