By Helen Klein
May 8, 2008
[Source: CourierLife Publications]
Ferry service is coming back to the Brooklyn Army Terminal.The service will be restored May 12th, as a stop on the new Rockaways to Manhattan route that the city is subsidizing as part of its five-borough ferry initiative announced earlier this year.Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine […]
A subsidized ferry route between southern Queens and Lower Manhattan, via Brooklyn, will begin next week to give commuters another option, the mayor and the City Council announced on Monday.
The two-year pilot Rockaway Service, which will be run by New York Water Taxi, will be financed using $1.1 million allocated by the City Council.
The new route, which begins on May 12, will run from Riis Landing in Breezy Point, Queens, to the Brooklyn Army Terminal to Pier 11 at Wall Street. It will run twice a day in each direction: 5:45 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. from Breezy Point, and 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. from Lower Manhattan. The trip will take about one hour each way. The cost will be $6 per trip.
Separately, New York Water Taxi will restart East River ferry service next month from Pier 11 and 34th Street to Long Island City, Queens, which it suspended in January because of lack of passengers and rising fuel costs. Service to South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will be restored when a new $1.25 million city-financed launch center being built at Schaefer Landing is completed, Water Taxi officials said in a statement.
“Ferry service will make the very difficult commute between the Rockaways and Manhattan much easier and less expensive,” said Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker. The service leaves from Riis Landing, in Queens, and is being provided by New York Water Taxi. Also along for the maiden voyage were Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., a council member from Queens, and Anthony D. Weiner, a congressman serving Brooklyn and Queens.
[Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
Water Taxi Service Welcomed By BP Markowitz, Sen. Golden
By Tom Kane
SUNSET PARK — Well, finally. Bay Ridge and Sunset Park riders now have ferry service to Pier 11 in Downtown Manhattan near Wall Street … Again.
It started on a rainy Monday morning, a little late, but when Delia Vitale saw the boat heading towards us in the rain, she exclaimed, “Here it is!”
Vitale, who lives in Sea Gate and for the last three months has driven into Manhattan paying over $200 a week to park, was thrilled with the new service.
“They stopped in February, telling us that because of maintenance and inspections the boat would be out of the water indefinitely. I’m glad they’re back,” she said.
[Source: New York Post]
Making Quinn’s Vision Work
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn this week proposed a visionary plan to develop commuter-ferry service linking the boroughs of New York City, offering a new transit alternative for emerging waterfront communities, especially in Brooklyn and Queens.
Her vision can and must work - it means commutes of less than 10 minutes from the Brooklyn or Queens waterfront to the city’s Pier 11 ferry terminal at the foot of Wall Street.
But the plan needs some tweaking.
I’ve shared Quinn’s vision since I started NY Waterway 21 years ago. Our Hudson River commuter ferries carry 32,000 people on 21 routes linking New York and New Jersey.
But I’ve also seen East River service fail. To duplicate the Hudson River success, Quinn and other city leaders must study the New Jersey model.
First, you need customers to ride the ferries. East River service has failed because there haven’t been passengers to pay the cost of ferry service and because service has been too limited.
Part of providing that base is coordinating bus service to bring people to the ferry landing - which helps to build a customer base for the ferry and adds value to neighborhoods further from the water.
[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 Resident LoriAnn Decio, 1/30/08]
As a loyal rider of the NY Water Taxi ferry from the Brooklyn Army Terminal to Wall Street, I am extremely upset and disappointed with the decision to suspend this invaluable service. The ferry is a vital alternative / addition to our mass transit system, not only helping to alleviate traffic congestion on our highways but also providing a fast, relaxing and safe commute to and from work.
What are the city’s contingency plans to evacuate the city in the event of the next terrorist attack, blackout, transit strike or natural disaster? The ferries provided the only means in and out of the city (besides walking over the bridge) when these emergencies occurred over the past few years and should be considered an excellent source of contingency.
NY should be thinking of expanding commuting options — not limiting them.
[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.
*** 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.
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