NYC Ferry at Hunters Point South Landing (via NYC Ferry)
May 4, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
NYC Ferry will be getting a massive injection in funds to expand the system’s service and ridership over the next five years, the city announced Thursday.
Mayor de Blasio said the city is investing $300 million in capital for a slew of investments towards the system, including new ferries capable of carrying 350 passengers, dock and pier improvements, and a second homeport to maintain and repair ferries. The expansion is expected to accommodate for 9 million annual riders by 2023, twice as many as previously projected, the city said.
“New Yorkers have spoken. We’re going to need bigger boats,” de Blasio said in a statement “We’re gearing up to meet the extraordinary demand for more public transit on our waterways.”
The announcement comes as two new routes are slated to come online in coming months, including the Lower East Side Route connecting Long Island City to parts of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
The city is already gearing up for a busy spring and summer ridership season. It will deploy three new vessels capable of carrying 350 passengers along the service’s busiest routes, add charter vessels, and increase service frequency.
In addition, the East River and South Brooklyn routes will include Governors Island—a popular summer destination—as a stop beginning Memorial Day weekend.
The ferry system has hit record ridership counts since launching in May 2017, according to the city. Around 3.7 million passengers were recorded in the system’s first year with just four routes in place when the city projected 4.6 million riders once all six routes came online.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation said it will study potential route expansions later this year.
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8 Comments
The ferry actually serves lower income people quite a bit (Rockaways, Bronx, Astoria etc..) I am willing to bet it is far more cost efficient than the MTA (understand that each cost $2.75 to ride however you have to factor in gov’t subsidies). Your comment is a desperate and misguided attempt to blame the LIC high rises as to why Deblasio is funding this program.
How about using the money to fix the subway’s signals? Nope have to cater to the recently arrived rich in LIC
Although the signal probz will remain, increase in ferry capacity = less strain on 7 train. This won’t be a solution but certainly a move in the right direction.
Also, money has never been the issue with fixing the signal probz. More likely incompetency and contractors stretching out the work as long as possible.
Yes, it has nothing to do with money. We already pay far more money per mile of track than any other transit service in the world. Shoveling more cash at the inept and corrupt MTA and its vampire politicians that support it won’t do a thing. Get rid of the MTA and let’s start really getting down to the business of improving public transit in NYC.
The ferry, like the subway, is for everyone. You are just bitter. We make a choice to live in this city.
Do you ride the ferry often? I do, and it is usually clogged with wealthy mommies (or their nannies) with huge strollers. At certain hours of the day it sounds like a Chucky Cheese with all the kids screaming and their moms struggling to talk over them.
The ferry might be for everybody, but currently it is mostly being used by a certain group.
So? Are you suggesting these individuals should not be allowed on the ferry? I don’t get the comment.
They should definitely look at putting restrictions on stroller use. Currently they are allowed inside the cabin (unlike bicycles), where they are not only an inconvenience, but also a safety hazard. They must either use a number limit, or ask passengers to leave them on the front deck, as they do with bikes.
Perhaps that wouldn’t even be necessary if the stroller users recognized the fact that they were on a commuter ferry and took it upon themselves to be courteous to those with real schedules, but that certainly isn’t the case at the moment.