Locals fl oat ideas for even more ferry routes
BY GABE HERMAN
Mayor de Blasio’s State of the
City speech on Jan. 10 included
an announcement of expanded
NYC Ferry service, which received mostly
positive feedback — but also some
calls for expanded service to other parts
of Manhattan that were not mentioned.
The 2020-21 expansion plan includes
a Staten Island route that will connect to
Battery Park City at Vesey St. and Midtown
West at Pier 79, at W. 39 St., and a
stop in Coney Island that will connect to
Bay Ridge and then Pier 11 in the Wall
St. area.
In announcing ferry expansions in his
State of the City, de Blasio remarked,
“Every day, millions of us lose minutes —
sometimes hours — just getting to work
or to school or wherever we have to be.
It shouldn’t be this hard to get around
in the greatest city in the world. And so
we’re giving people more and better options.”
Along with new and expanded routes,
the plan will see the city invest $100
million in the system, including for new
boats, construction of new landings and
investment in existing landings.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson
said in a statement about the expansion,
“Our city’s ferries have proven to be a
great alternate mode of transportation
and a useful utilization of our waterfronts.
I’m thrilled that ferry service is
being expanded across the city, and that
residents on the West Side will now have
a direct link to Lower Manhattan and
Staten Island. I want to thank the Economic
Development Corporation and the
administration for their commitment to
expanding ferry service in the city.”
There have been some calls in Manhattan
for NYC Ferry to expand more to
the West Side, which is less represented
in the system even as the service expands
to all fi ve boroughs.
“What about West Siders that want a
watery commute — why no connection
to Wall St.?” tweeted Jeffrey LeFrancois,
the Meatpacking District Business Improvement
District’s director of operations
and community affairs.
LeFrancois, who was Johnson’s former
chief of staff, recalled his joy when
the ferry system was fi rst announced six
years ago.
“Have been pushing since that day for
lateral west side service in Manhattan,”
he added. “Today we learned that fi ght
will continue on behalf of neighborhoods
that are undergoing tremendous development
(Hudson Yards, 11th Ave. in Hell’s
Kitchen, Hudson Square) with next to
ZERO support coming via increased
public transit. A connection from Pier 79
to Wall St. is a start, but not the real solution
the west side needs to make transit
more equitable for even more New Yorkers.”
Also on Twitter, local Patrick Alba
added about the ferry expansions, “Any
plans to use the piers on west 125th in the
future? There’s no westside love here.”
The East Side has seen increased ferry service, like at E. 34th St., above, and
now the West Side will be getting some added stops, Mayor de Blasio has announced.
But West Siders say they want even more.
Pier 57 in Chelsea is being renovated,
and along with outdoor public space and
offi ce space leased by Google, there will
be a marina there. But the city was not
specifi c in its plans for which existing
landings citywide it might invest in going
forward.
With the city proposing to close East
River Park to protect it from fl ooding,
local Naomi Schiller wrote on Twitter,
“If the East River Park is shut down for
3 years or more to create coastal protection,
NYC Ferry should run free trips
from Corlears Hook and Stuy Cove to
Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge
Park. People need parks!”
District Leader Daisy Paez, who represents
the Lower East Side, replied, “I
made that suggestion! I stand fi rm on
having families from the LES taken to
Governors Island. I will continue to press
the issue.”
NYC Ferry ridership has generally increased
since its May 2017 launch, with
the third quarter of 2018, the most recent
period for which there is data, having the
highest ridership numbers yet, with more
than 2 million total riders from July to
September. The city just increased annual
ridership projections for 2023 from
9 million to 11 million.
From the ferry system’s mid-2017
launch through September 2018, there
have been 6.7 million total riders. An
average weekday sees ridership around
21,000. For comparison, 5.5 million
people rode the subways in 2017 on an
average weekday, and the daily number
for the same span is 1.9 million for
buses.
While ferry admission is the same
$2.75 as for subways and buses, the city
heavily subsidizes the ferry system and
each ride has cost the city $8.96, according
to Crain’s New York.
The ferry system operates with about
a 90 percent on-time performance, according
to city data, compared with the
subway’s on-time rate being around 68
percent in 2018.
14 January 17, 2019 TVG Schneps Media