From the NY Post:Business sank like the Titanic on the new East River ferry service last week once passengers had to start paying.
Ridership plummeted from 10,900 a day for the 10 days that passengers could ride the newly expanded ferry service for free to just 3,613 a day in the first five days they had to pay.
And last Monday, the first work day passengers had to shell out $4 for one-way tickets, only 2,824 paying customers boarded the 149-seat ferries, compared to about 5,700 the Monday before.
6 comments:
Queens rots around us while our politicians piss away our taxes for transportation to empty waterfront properties on brown fields far away from transportation.
Think of your schools, hospitals, libraries that could use funding and think how the money is spent: bike lanes and ferries to the ghost towns on the waterfront.
This should not be a surprise to anyone-- these ferry services have come and gone over the past twenty years. People will not pay 4 (or 5) bucks for a 3 minute river crossing, when a subway fare is half that and pretty much gets you where you need to be. I'll bet folks would pay 2 bucks (or less), but clearly this is not a sustainable fare for these manpower-heavy operations.
And this low level of ridership is when the weather is perfect on the water, and that 10 minute walk from the dock to Vernon-Jackson is boring but otherwise pleasant. What will the passenger count be when the temperature drops?
The only way ferry services will survive between the boros is if it's priced the same as MTA services and includes transfers. In other words, never.
Anon. No. 3:
You're absolutely right. I've been on the Water Taxi during the middle of winter. The view was nice, obviously, but the riding conditions were terrible. It may not be as heavy a boat as what NY Waterway or the Staten Island Ferry uses, but it was still a difficule trip.
This whole fiasco is more diverting of our taxes to "new wealth" neighborhoods like Hunter's Point, South Street Seaport and Wiliamsburg. Plain and simple. A new multi-million dollar library and a worthless ferry service for Hunter's Point for Connecticut Republican Leiberman-ass-licking transplants, the majority of STILL have their legal addresses & license plates OUT OF STATE due to tax evasion and LLC BULLSHIT, when the city is CLOSING public libraries just a mile away due to lack of funds.
LACK OF FUNDS?
This city is in fast decay. Nero fiddles, while Rome burns...
Post a Comment