By Jordan Fraade
NextCity
For a city built on islands, where getting stuck on a bridge or in a tunnel is a routine part of life, New York’s ferry system is skeletal at best. The city’s two major operators have a combined daily ridership of about 100,000. Ferry schedules and fares are not integrated with the train and bus systems that provide service for the vast majority of the city’s commuters. And huge portions of the city’s 520 miles of waterfront remain ignored by water transit.
Naturally, transportation planners see an untapped market. In February, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed the creation of a ferry system serving all five boroughs, promising fast service and relatively low upfront capital costs, with rides costing the same as subway or bus fare. The main transportation networks are chronically underfunded and overcrowded, and the city wouldn’t have to spend money to acquire any expensive rights-of-way for the boats. Plus, anecdotal evidence suggests people really love being on boats.
The question experts seem to be asking isn’t “Are ferries a good idea?” but rather “How can ferries fit into the city’s overall transit network?” Joan Byron of the Pratt Center for Community Development believes that in light of the rapid rezoning and development that New York’s waterfront has seen in the last 20 years, waterborne transit is more needed than ever. Pointing to recently released data showing that “some of the subway stations that have shown the biggest percent increases in ridership are … the first station the train hits when it comes out of the East River tunnel,” she holds up ferries as a way to relieve the subways’ space crunch.
Proposed NYC ferry plan
Byron talked about those stats last week as part of a panel on ferry transit at the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance’s 2015 “floating conference.” Her co-panelist, Douglas Adams of the MWA, filled in some of the essential numbers of the ferry plan: Five routes and 24 stations, rolled out over 2017 and 2018, with an estimated 4.5 million annual riders once the system is complete. A major administration talking point is the system’s low cost: $55 million to construct landings, and $10 million to $20 million to operate the ferries annually. Calling this a “rounding error” when compared to the city’s other transportation costs, Adams said that the ferry system would require a smaller subsidy per passenger than both the Staten Island Ferry and the Long Island Rail Road.
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