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.

[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.

*** FERRY SERVICE HAS BEEN RESTORED TO SUNSET PARK! ***

Current Ferry Service in Sunset Park, Brooklyn:
There is currently weekday ferry service from Breezy Point to Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, to Pier 11 (Wall Street) in Manhattan. This service is funded by the first subsidy for passenger ferry service in Manhattan as of May, 2008. 
Click […]

[Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

BAY RIDGE — It took 15 minutes for a ferry at a 25 mph clip to travel from off the 69th Street Pier in Bay Ridge to the Wall Street Pier 11 on Tuesday afternoon.

The “let’s root and toot for the ferry” test run with a waterborne lunch pep talk served as a preview of what many ferry advocates hope will be the wave of the near-future for Bay Ridge commuters, perhaps as early as this coming spring.

The history of ferry service in Brooklyn, NY dates back to 1643. In the article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Monday July 18, 1870, the first ferry service and ferryman are discussed. Prior to the roadway and bridge infrastructure being built to connect Brooklyn and Manhattan, the waterways were the primary source of […]