Ferry service between Rockland and Manhattan ends May 1
-
- April
- 1
HAVERSTRAW — New York Water Taxi will suspend commuter ferry service from Rockland and lower Manhattan on May 1.
The two-year pilot program, which never attracted enough riders, has run out of money, both ferry and Rockland officials said.
“We have made tremendous efforts to secure operating funds to sustain and grow this service, but to date, have been unable to secure additional funding,” Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef said in a statement.
Nearly $7.5 million has been pumped into the project by its partners — Rockland County, the city of Yonkers, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the state Department of Transportation and New York Water Taxi.
The ferry company said it will continue to run service between Yonkers and Manhattan, but its frequency will likely be reduced.
Ferry riders found out about the news this morning. They were given free doughnuts and coffee. They’ll be provided free beer and wine on the ride home tonight.
According to New York Water Taxi, 956 passengers caught the ferry from Yonkers last December, compared with 236 from Haverstraw that same month.
There are two runs from Haverstraw and four from Yonkers.
Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 8:30 am by Khurram Saeed.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
“The two-year pilot program, which never attracted enough riders, has run out of money” ?????????
It hasn’t been two years yet. You should have an investigative journalist find out what happened to the subsidy money that was promised to keep the ferry running through “December 2009”.
“never attracted enough riders” ??????
The subsidy money sure as heck didn’t go towards any efforts to “attract riders” to the Haverstraw portion of the run. An argument could be made that NO effort was made towards that goal. No advertising was ever initiated which made the ferry “the best kept secret” in Rockland. The vast, vast majority of people in Rockland thought that the only ferry was the Waterway ferry to Ossining.
It was recently reported that Water Taxi purchased two new “tour boats” but the boats on the Haverstraw run were old; frequently broke down; often had no heat in winter and no AC in summer. The promised concession stand never opened. If they gave the passengers “doughnuts & coffee” this morning, that was certainly the first and only time they “gave” anything. The boats were almost always late and sometimes just never bothered to show up without any prior notification! How is performance like that supposed to “attract riders”? At least once, on the coldest night of last winter, the Haverstraw riders were abandoned in Yonkers with the only explanation being “we’re not going to Rockland tonight” Don’t you think they could have made that announcement before boarding in Manhattan? Well, no. Not if your intention is to DISCOURAGE ridership. Not if your intention all along was to pocket the subsidy money and let the run fail.
Perhaps if there was a ferry that went directly from Nyack to NYC, it would have done better. What’s the point of Rockland commuters driving to Ossining, it’s easier to drive to Westchester and take the train. RC just doesn’t seem to get that many people DO commute to Manahattan, and would love another option besides the Red/Tan. (Finally the train schedule is getting better)
The ferry did run from Rockland, I used it many times last summer. The problem is that it was often a 2 1/2 ride when running against the tide. I took my portable GPS and the boat only ran 20 MPH. Also, there were only two runs in and out of Rockland per day.
If they really wanted to make it work, they need a true hi-speed boat that can get you there in an hour, and they need more expanded service.
BTW, there was always free coffee, donuts and copies of the NY Times on board.
Mike,
The “free” donuts and coffee weren’t provided by Water Taxi. They were brought onboard by the regular riders who also brought on snacks occasionally in the evening. You may have particularly noticed them in the back on Friday evenings.
Nice blog post – I found your site through Google.