By Raanan Geberer
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.

The service has run since the 1990s, when it was begun by another company, SeaStreak, after ferry service from Bay Ridge’s 69th Street Pier was stopped due to construction. Its “glory days� were in the two years after 9/11, when it was operated by NY Waterway and was subsidized the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) through the city. New York Water Taxi took it over in 2003, after the subsidies ended.

“At that time [when the ferry was subsidized], there were 800 to 900 riders a day,� says Roland Lewis, president of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, yesterday. “Now, I believe there are about 100 to 300.�

This reporter took the ferry on several occasions, and found that most of the customers were people who lived in Bensonhurst or Bay Ridge, drove their cars to the ferry terminal, then took the ferry to jobs on Wall Street. Indeed, says Jeremy Laufer, district manager of Community Board 7, the pier at the Army Terminal was built specifically for the ferry.

“Fuel prices have doubled since the beginning of 2007 and ridership on BAT service has stayed constant. During the winter, ridership decreases even further. We cannot continue to operate this commuter service without public support,� said the management of New York Water Taxi, in a statement.

“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,� the statement continued.

In the wake of the announced suspension of the commuter service by the trademark yellow boats, many others are calling for public subsidy of the city’s private ferry services.

“I am outraged that the city continues to treat ferry service as a proverbial ‘black sheep.’ In the context of Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to impose a driving tax on commuters, it is hard to fathom that the city’s master transportation plan has so little room for ferries,� said Councilman Vincent Gentile, D-Bay Ridge, who also called for resumption of ferry service to the 69th Street Pier, which is closer to populated areas.

Laufer says that part of the problem is that the MTA bus that goes nearest to the Army Terminal stops on First Avenue, one block short of the ferry pier. Despite the board’s efforts, he says, the MTA has failed to act on the request.

“The Staten Island Ferry is subsidized 100 percent, but the ferries in Brooklyn get no subsidy,� he adds. Lewis of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance also said that minimal publicity on the part of the city administration is partially to blame for low ridership. There are few signs directing bus riders, walkers or drivers to the ferry at either the Army Terminal or Fulton Ferry Landing other than the small sign put up by New York Water Taxi itself, he points out.

Both Laufer and Lewis raise the possibility of someday being able to use MetroCards on private ferry services. “In New Jersey, it’s a seamless process,� says Lewis. “You can take New Jersey Transit to Hoboken and take the ferry, and use only one ticket.

“Why shouldn’t you use the same yellow card [MetroCard] on the ferry that you do on the subway or bus?� As it is, he says, the price of a ferry ticket, or $5.50 per ride — “essentially the same as the price of an express bus ride� — works against increasing ferry ridership.

Figures provided by the city Department of Transportation show that the ferry service from Brooklyn Army Terminal to Lower Manhattan dropped by more than half from 2002 to 2003, after the federal subsidy ended.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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