A ferry is a watercraft that carries passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water taxi or water bus.
A ferry underway in Penang, Malaysia
The number of actual seats has traditionally been very limited like on this Japanese passenger ferry, with larger spaces dedicated to tatami or broadloom areas where passengers can sit or lie down (on Shikoku and Kyushu ferry, 2014).
Inside a short distance ferry, the Yamagawa-Nejime Ferry [ja], Kagoshima, Japan (2023)
MS Silja Symphony leaving Helsinki via the Kustaanmiekka strait to the Baltic Sea.
A water taxi or a water bus is a watercraft used to provide public or private transport, usually, but not always, in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or on demand to many locations, operating in a similar manner to a taxi. A boat service shuttling between two points would normally be described as a ferry rather than a water bus or taxi.
Royal Daffodil ship in Liverpool, Mersey Ferry
Water Bus in Tigre, Buenos Aires
Water taxis parked at Labadie Beach, Haiti
Water Taxis, Cowes, Isle of Wight