Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance

[Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

Supporters Hope to Restore Service, Say ‘Ferries Are the Wave of the Future’

By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

SUNSET PARK — Wave goodbye for awhile to the ferry service between the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park and Wall Street. And say hello to more cars congesting the roads and more riders on cramped subways and express buses.

That’s what faced water taxi commuters on Friday, the first ferry-less day of N.Y. Water Taxi - TFWM Ferry’s service from the 58th Street Public Pier. The service, the owners said regretfully, can no longer be funded.

As the sun set on Thursday over New York Harbor, the last commuter ferry service in Southwest Brooklyn came to a halt, ferry operators said — until further notice, or maybe at least until later this spring. Commuters of what they called “the ferry family” lamented the loss, as ferry travel advocates and owners expressed both outrage for now and hope for the future at a morning rally and on the last Manhattan-Brooklyn run.

“We will get this service back one way or another,” vowed Tom Palladino, co-owner and president of TWFM, taking the last ride at 5 p.m. to Wall Street and back to Sunset Park on “The American Princess,” packed with commuters. “The cost of fuel has doubled since the beginning of 2007. But during the winter, rider-ship decreases. We cannot operate without public support.”

Councilman Vincent Gentile, D-Bay Ridge, along with the Sunset-Bay Ridge Waterfront Alliance and elected and civic officials, held a rally at the start of the morning commute at the pier soon after sunrise. “Ferries need to be the cornerstone of any plan that aims to reduce congestion. The city is going in the wrong direction,” said Gentile, taking aim at the lack of city support from Brooklyn ferry service. He called for to expand subsidies to private ferry operators.

Read the rest of the article at Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

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