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QUEENS WEEKLY, JANUARY 12, 2020
NYC Ferry ridership up 32 percent in 2019: EDC
BY GABE HERMAN
The NYC Ferry saw increased
ridership in 2019 from
the previous year, according to
figures released Thursday by
the NYC Economic Development
Corporation (EDC), which owns
the aquatic transport system.
In 2019, 6.3 million people
rode NYC Ferry, a 32 percent
increase from 2018 and a 38 percent
increase from projections
made back in 2015, according to
Seth Myers, NYC EDC Executive
Vice President and Director
of Project Implementation.
That brings the system’s total
ridership number to 14 million
since NYC Ferry’s launch in
May 2017.
The increase in ridership
includes all original routes and
those new routes launched in
2018.
Last summer alone saw 2.5
million riders on the system,
a 32 percent jump from 2018.
Ridership on the four original
routes, East River, Rockaway,
South Brooklyn and Astoria,
increased 15 percent from the
previous year.
The Lower East Side and
Soundview routes, which both
launched in August 2018, had 23
percent ridership increases in
fall 2019 over fall 2018.
Myers said he was pleased
that the ferry system had seen
steady year over year increases
in ridership.
“We’re happy to see it become
part of the transit fabric of the
city,” he said.
NYC Ferry is scheduled to
expand its services in the coming
years. A St. George route,
complementing the free Staten
Island Ferry, is set to launch in
2020 and include stops at Vesey
Street in Battery Park City and
at Midtown West at Pier 79 (West
39th Street). There is no specific
date for when in 2020 the new
route will launch, Myers said.
A Coney Island route is set to
debut in 2021, and a Ferry Point
Park stop in the Bronx will be
added in 2021 to the Soundview
route. Myers added that new
ways to improve the system are
constantly being explored, such
as recently adding early morning
ferries on the Rockaway
and Soundview routes for those
needing to get to work earlier.
“We’re always looking at different
ways we can modify the
schedule to better serve riders,”
Myers said.
Three months ago, the NYC
EDC released a report showing
that NYC Ferry disproportionately
serves upper-middle-class
and white New Yorkers. And
studies by watchdog groups
have shown the system to rely
on high subsidies. Myers said
the price of an NYC Ferry ride
will remain at $2.75, the same as
for subways and buses.
In the wake of the report, Myers
is hopeful the new services
coming over the next two years
will bring further diversity in
ridership.
“We set out for our ferry system
to go where there was demand,
and target social inequities
of the past where there were
waterfront communities that
were not served by transit,” Myers
said.
He added that outreach is being
done to spread word of the
ferry services to communities
near water, including NYCHA
buildings.
The goal is to make NYC Ferry
a more equitable system and
to better connect New Yorkers,
Myers said.
Myers added that, in the
city’s past, riding a ferry cost
more than the subway and was
seen as a recreational diversion.
If that’s still a common perception,
he observed, “through outreach
and education, we want to
get to people so they feel it’s part
of the city transit system.”
“We’re really proud of our
success,” he said of increased
rider numbers for 2019. “We enjoy
seeing the popularity of it
and the high ridership.”
NYC Ferry ridership increased in 2019. Photo Courtesy of the NYC EDC
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