17 Facts About NYC Ferry

NYC Ferry is a public network of ferry routes in New York City operated by Hornblower Cruises.

NYC Ferry provides free shuttle buses, connecting to ferry stops in the Rockaways and Midtown Manhattan.

The South NYC Ferry Company, founded in 1836, merged with the Fulton NYC Ferry Company three years later, and the combined companies underwent a series of acquisitions, eventually owning many of the East River ferries.

The Staten Island NYC Ferry was then sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1884, and the City of New York assumed control of the ferry in 1905.

NYC Ferry, first proposed by the NYCEDC as the "Citywide Ferry Service, " was announced by de Blasio's administration in 2015 as part of a proposed citywide ferry system that would reach through the five boroughs, though a Staten Island terminal had not been finalized.

Related searches

Free transfers would be offered only to other NYC Ferry lines, meaning that riders would pay another fare if they transferred to one of the city's other mass-transit systems.

The relatively low fare of NYC Ferry was made in contrast to some other major cities like San Francisco and Sydney, where ferry fares are higher than the fares of other modes of mass transit in these cities.

NYC Ferry was to cost $325 million with the city contributing an additional operating subsidy of $10 million to $20 million per year.

However, NYC Ferry executives had purposely chosen these two companies because of their expertise and because of the unlikeliness that both shipyards would be destroyed by hurricanes.

NYC Ferry continued to temporarily use some of the older East River Ferry boats on that route.

In May 2018, the first anniversary of the ferry system's opening, de Blasio announced that NYC Ferry had received an extra $300 million to purchase extra boats, increase fleet capacity, and expand service.

However, critics stated that the MTA's subway and bus systems carried a combined 7 million passengers per day, and that such a large subsidy for NYC Ferry was disproportionate to the number of people who rode the ferry.

In March 2019, the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission found that NYC Ferry was one of the most subsidized forms of transport in New York City, despite having low ridership.

NYC Ferry system has been criticized for mainly benefiting the well-off and for serving gentrifying waterfront areas such as Williamsburg.

NYC Ferry said that the ferry system was not a way to improve transit access to people in transit-deserts, but as a way to spur economic development along the waterfront.

NYC Ferry noted that the total ridership for NYC Ferry in 2017 was less than the New York City Subway's total daily ridership, and that more than three times as many people rode Citi Bike, the city's bike-share system, than took the ferry in 2017.

NYC Ferry noted that the city bought French motorboat engines that had never been used on passenger boats in the United States; and that since all American shipyards with expertise were not able to take new orders until 2018, the city decided to use a builder with less experience.