From the time the Thames River Heritage Park resurfaced as a concept, linking attractions on both sides of the river by water, I was suspicious advocates could pull it off.

After all, the idea was first conceived decades ago and then languished, despite significant infrastructure funding by the state.

And so often this seems like the land of big ideas for transformative projects that never happen.

Yet not only did the heritage park have a successful launch this season, with flawless weekend taxi service around the river basin since July, but there are some suggestions of even bigger things to come.

Enjoying a ride Friday, with my season pass, I had a chance to chat with David Dietrich, a General Dynamics vice president who has been helping his wife, Jacalyn, with the launch of the new taxi service.

The Dietrichs have a three-year contract, renewable each year, to operate the service for the park.

The boats, owned by the City of Groton, are surplus Navy launches obtained for $1 each and reconditioned at Crocker's Boatyard in New London.

Toward the end of the season, the taxi service also began offering river tours, 90-minute morning and sunset trips to Norwich and back.

These have proven to be quite popular, Dietrich said.

One new stop always envisioned for the taxi, which this summer did a three-stop, one-hour loop from City Pier in New London to Thames Street in Groton and Fort Trumbull in New London, is the Nautilus Submarine Force Library & Museum upriver.

That could happen by 2018, depending on the construction of a new dock there.

But other destinations also are under consideration and could even happen sooner, Dietrich told me.

One would be at the Submarine Base, where Navy officials have expressed an interest in making the taxi available for Navy personnel on the base who don't have cars and might want to visit New London or Groton.

That would expand the concept of the taxi as a way to link tourism sites on both sides of the river to a more regional water transportation system.

How great is that? It's now happening in New York city, where billions are being invested to make water taxis transportation equivalents of subways and buses.

The other inquiry about having the water taxi make a stop came from the Mohegan Indians, who asked this summer about having the service extend to their Mohegan Sun in Montville, Dietrich said.

The idea of linking the casino with New London and its transportation center has big implications.

These are all things that the Dietrichs and the governing board of the new park will begin to work out, once this season concludes on Sept. 18.

Meanwhile, I got the sense the Dietrichs have had a long summer building a new service from scratch, from commissioning the old launches and getting them certified by the Coast Guard, to organizing the route and schedules, hiring and paying 12 new employees and marketing the whole thing.

They are off to an impressive start with this, their inaugural season.

There are a lot of people, volunteers, municipal officials and representatives from the tourist attractions on both sides of the river, who did some Herculean work to get this off the ground.

They all deserve a lot of credit.

And the Dietrichs, who brought this all together on a shoestring budget with a big agenda and an impossibly tight schedule, deserve whatever civic achievement awards the communities can muster.

This was quite a success here in the land of big ideas for transformative projects that never happen. This one is happening.

Some fine September weather lies ahead in the next two weeks. If you haven't already, head down and hop aboard.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com