NYC Ferry Will Sail To All 5 Boroughs Next Year

NEW YORK — New York City's ferry service will finally land in all five boroughs by the end of 2020, three years after its initial launch, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday. That's when NYC Ferry boats are expected to start sailing a new roughly 35-minute route from Staten Island to Midtown West with a stop in Battery Park City.

The system's expansion will continue in 2021 with the planned launch of a route from Coney Island to Wall Street and a new stop on The Bronx's Soundview route at Ferry Point in Throggs Neck, the mayor's office said.

The growth will cost $100 million in extra capital expenses for new landings and vessels, city officials said. But de Blasio argued it's worth the money to offer New Yorkers more transportation options.

"This is the kind of investment that we believe is worth it for the long term needs of New York City," the Democratic mayor said Monday.

Since it launched in May 2017, the NYC Ferry service has grown to six routes touching four boroughs and has carried nearly 8 million riders, according to the mayor's office. The system will be supported by subsidies of $7 to $8 per rider when it is fully expanded, said James Patchett, the president and CEO of the city's Economic Development Corporation.

De Blasio announced the latest expansion during his annual State of the City address last week. In addition to the new and extended routes, the Astoria route will add a stop at the Brooklyn Navy Yard starting in May.

The city will also change the existing South Brooklyn route starting in 2021 so that it begins at Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park rather than Bay Ridge, which will be served by the new Coney Island route, the mayor's office said.

The South Brooklyn route will also skip the DUMBO stop, which will only be served by the East River route that also stops in Hunters Point, Greenpoint and Williamsburg, according to the mayor's office.

The new Coney Island route won praise from Brooklyn politicians, who said the service would boost business in the area and drastically cut commute times for its transit-starved residents.

"You’re talking about an hour (and) twenty minutes, hour and a half average commute for the average Coney Island resident who calls Coney Island home," said City Councilman Mark Treyger, a Democrat who represents the area. "And now, with the announcement of the ferry, we go from an hour and a half to 37 minutes."

City officials examined 35 locations for an expansion of ferry service, de Blasio said. Canarsie was among the those that were snubbed down despite residents and elected officials reportedly pushing to bring boats there for years.

The mayor said some locations will get another look in 2021, but others are just unlikely to work.

"Some of them just had overwhelming physical problems — for example, water that was too shallow for a ferry," he said. "It’s very hard to overcome that. Some of them were, in real travel time, a lot longer than we thought anyone would actually want to use them."

A one-way ferry trip costs $2.75, the same as the base subway fare, but riders cannot transfer to an MTA subway or bus for free. De Blasio said he ultimately wants to integrate the ferry's payment system with the state-controlled transit agency's.

"We’ve let the MTA know that is our goal, and we’re going to start talks in earnest about how to do that," he said.

(Lead image: Two NYC Ferry boats are seen from Brooklyn Bridge Park in April 2017. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)