Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance

[Press Release: Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance]

On Monday, May 5, 2008, Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn will announce the first subsidized ferry service from Rockaways to Lower Manhattan as part of a 5-Borough ferry service initiative of PlaNYC 2030. This service will include a stop at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where the announcement will be made at noon.

This ferry service will be operated by the NY Water Taxi, and will be reinstated as early as Monday, May 12, 2008.

[Source: Columbia Daily Spectator]

A maritime evacuation plan for Manhattan announced last month, in which a fleet of small boats will be used to ferry people across the Hudson River to New Jersey in the event of a serious blackout or terrorist attack, has been dubbed a Dunkirk-esque plan by bloggers and social commentators.

Gothamist, a well-known New York City blog, noted shortly after the Trans-Hudson Emergency Transportation Plan was announced in early January that the officials who designed this plan seem to have emulated aspects of the Dunkirk evacuation with their proposal to utilize “small craft to move millions of people in the event of an emergency.” Similar claims have also been made by other bloggers.

The reference alludes to the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk, France during which hundreds of thousands of trapped allied soldiers were ferried to safety across the English Channel by a hastily assembled fleet of 860 small fishing vessels and privately owned pleasure boats, pressed into service for the operation.

The Trans-Hudson plan, which was drawn up jointly by the Office of Emergency Management in New York City and Office of Emergency Management in New Jersey, will rely on over 100 private water taxis and dinner-cruise vessels, along with the larger Staten Island ferries, in order to quickly evacuate millions of New York workers across the Hudson River to a staging area in New Jersey’s Liberty State Park. The plan forms part of New York’s general area evacuation plan and was drawn up in response to the 2003 blackout in which the subway system closed down and thousands were stranded throughout the city.

[Source: Queens Times Ledger]

A pilot program to bring ferry service from the Rockaways to Manhattan will launch in the summer, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said in her State of the City address last week.

The idea for Rockaways ferry service was born following a Council Transportation Committee hearing last year in Broad Channel, Quinn said, where the speaker, City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) and Council Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu (D-Flushing) heard the community’s gripes about their two-hour commutes to Manhattan.

[…]

Under the city Economic Development Corporations request for bidders on the pilot program, those interested in providing ferry service would need to develop a plan that connects a point in the Rockaways to one in Lower Manhattan. The plans may include other stops on the peninsula or the Brooklyn waterfront.

[Source: Gotham Gazette]

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn endorsed the creation of a citywide ferry service and an expansion of a small business insurance program in her State of the City address last week. Now advocates and stakeholders are weighing in, and - for the most part - appear to be praising the proposals.

Last week, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced her support for a five-borough, year-round ferry system that Mayor Bloomberg and the city Department of Transportation are developing. Such a proposal may seem like a pipe dream to many New Yorkers, who have seen ferry service remain fairly stagnant, either from a shortage of funding or an apparent lack of demand.

[Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

Increase in Real Estate Development Leads to More Demand for Ferries

NEW YORK — In her State of the City Address yesterday, City Council President Christine Quinn called for cleaner and more accessible mass transit for NYC residents and visitors.

“With some neighborhoods more than three quarters of a mile from a subway station we need to examine other modes of transportation. It’s only natural to look at our natural highways…our water ways…to move New Yorkers efficiently and sustainably.” “ … this is an idea that came straight from listening to New Yorkers … ” “In the near future we’ll outline our strategy for developing what will be one of the most significant transit initiatives in recent New York City history.”

[Source: The Brooklyn Paper]

By Joe Jordan
for The Brooklyn Paper

Regular passengers on the Sunset Park to Lower Manhattan ferry slammed New York Water Taxi for hastily announcing that it will suspend winter service on Jan. 31.

“I’m devastated — this is my way of travel,” said Mary Ann Lento, who has taken the ferry to her Manhattan job every day for nearly 20 years.

She said she doesn’t mind paying $54 for her weekly 10-trip ticket.

“I’m not a young person. This is a stress-free way of travel. You know it’s going to be there and it just works.”

[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.

[Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

BROOKLYN — The date when New York Water Taxi will suspend its commuter service from the Brooklyn Army Terminal at 58th Street in Sunset Park to Lower Manhattan’s Pier 11 — Feb. 1 — is approaching fast, and experts agree that something must be done to increase New Yorkers’ ferry ridership.

The Water Taxi company announced the suspension of the service — which will likely be reinstated in May, according to a company spokeswoman — earlier this month. This came on the heels of New York Water Taxi’s suspension of its East River route starting from Fulton Ferry Landing.

[Source: NY Water Taxi]

New York Water Taxi (NYWT), and our partner TWFM Ferry (TWFM), regretfully announces the suspension of commuter service from the Brooklyn Army Terminal to lower Manhattan effective February 1, 2008.

NYWT took over the service in 2003, on short notice, when it was abandoned by another operator. We have worked tirelessly to make the run economically viable, but the service continues to be an economic drain on the Company.

[…]

We will continue to work with the city agencies, elected officials such as Councilmember Gentile and the Sunset Ridge Ferry Coalition [sic.] in the hope that we will be able to restore the service by the spring. Proposals for public operating subsidies and new docks that could add riders to this commuter service would help tremendously and we will keep BAT riders informed about the possible resumption of the service via email.

[Source: Brooklyn Resident Mary Ann Lento, 1/23/08]

I protest the suspension of ferry service between Brooklyn Army Terminal and Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan.

Together we are a powerful constituent base, a powerful tax base and a loyal downtown workforce.

The riders of the Brooklyn Army Terminal Ferry are reaching out to our elected officials to help us in our crusade to save the ferry service to Lower Manhattan.

For the hundreds of Brooklyn and Queens Residents who take the ferry, we implore you to take up the cause of this important service impacts our ability to live, work and pay taxes in New York City.