South Amboy Ferry Service To New York City Will Launch Oct. 30

SOUTH AMBOY, NJ — New ferry service from South Amboy to Midtown and Lower Manhattan is scheduled to begin Oct. 30.

This was confirmed Tuesday by South Amboy Mayor Fred Henry. Service leaves from the ferry dock at 100 Radford Ferry Road. There is a parking lot right next to the ferry dock, and parking is free. NY Waterway provides free shuttles from the South Amboy train station to get people to the ferry; they also provided free shuttles once the ferry docks in Midtown.

"It's tremendous news; it's really been a long time coming," said Henry. "NY Waterway will provide buses to pick up people in the area around South Amboy. I've been getting calls from people in Perth Amboy, Sayreville and South River asking when the service will begin and how they can take it."

Ferries will go to both Downtown (Brookfield Place) and Midtown (West 39th Street). Right now, service will not run on weekends; it will be weekdays, Monday-Friday only. Service will run during the morning and evening commute hours, according to NY Waterway.

Starting Oct. 30, the first ferry leaves at 5:45 a.m., and then every hour: 6:45 a.m., 7:45 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Here is the South Amboy-NYC schedule: https://www.nywaterway.com/Sou...

Fares are one-way adult: $18, one-way senior: $17, 10-trip: $165, 40-trip: $600 and monthly $588. For comparison, a 40-trip ticket from Belford to NYC by Seastreak is $720.

NY Waterway told South Amboy they wanted to get the service up and running very soon this fall, said the mayor.

The location from where the ferries will leave from is 50 yards from where South Amboy is planning to build a permanent ferry terminal. However, construction on the ferry terminal has not started yet. Regardless, NY Waterway is eager to begin the service, he said.

"They lost their contact in Highlands, and once they lost that they really wanted to push this a little bit more," he said. (He's referring to this: In July 2022, the Monmouth Board of Commissioners voted to give the Belford ferry service contract to Seastreak, taking away a contract that had been held by NY Waterway for the past 20+ years, since the ferry service first started in 1999. NY Waterway sued Monmouth County, but was ultimately unable to hold onto the contract.)

According to Henry, NY Waterway is eager to keep a foothold in Monmouth County, and they will do so via South Amboy.

"We've been sitting on a letter of intent from NY Waterway to run this service for the past 12 years, so they've always been interested in this site," he said. "I think there is demand for this, otherwise NY Waterway wouldn't be doing it. They are a big organization and they know what they are doing. They checked out the dynamics of the community here; they think there is demand. They told us they want to launch this October, so in the past few months we did a sort of public-private partnership with them: Buying lighting, generators, parking signs to get this thing started. It's ready to go."

SeaStreak used to run a ferry from South Amboy after 9/11, but they discontinued it after Superstorm Sandy caused damage to the South Amboy waterfront.

Here is an ad NY Waterway just released in the past week announcing the South Amboy-New York City ferry service:

Ground Broken For South Amboy Ferry Service Parking Lot, Bulkheads (May 2022)

Station Bay Luxury Apartments Now Renting By South Amboy Proposed Ferry Site (March 2022)