NYC Ferry regularly had to cancel trips because of issues with its piers that closed dozens of times in recent months, an amNewYork Metro analysis has found.
A review of NYC Ferry’s notices of landing closures on Twitter revealed that pier closures occurred on 47 days in the past six months, or more than every four days across its network of 25 stops.
That’s on top of the constant suspension of the Greenpoint landing in Brooklyn, which, unlike the other stops, is private property. This stop has been out of commission since May and won’t be fully repaired until at late June, according to its owner Lendlease.
The most common cause was generically described in the social media posts as a “mechanical issue,” which accounted for 35 closures, or nearly three-quarters of cases.
The NYC Ferry account did not consistently post when service was restored on its Twitter page, but data provided by EDC showed that 85% of mechanical issue closures were resolved in less than three hours.
Ten cases were due to “extremely high winds,” and all boat service stopped during the Jan. 29 winter storm.
“NYC Ferry is a complex network of vessels and landings subject to severe weather conditions, which are monitored at all times and maintained with ongoing inspections and repairs when needed,” said EDC spokesman Brian Zumhagen in a statement.
“Weather-related outages are considered important operational decisions that place safety first. With this said, NYC Ferry regrets disruptions to service, and in each instance, our operations teams have moved as quickly as possible to repair any issues,” the rep added.
The Astoria landing in Queens had the most closures and was shut down 10 times due to electrical outages — all of them in January. The frequent outages there were first reported by Patch.
“I heard it was out but I thought it was because of the weather,” said local Effie Hegazy as she was about to board a boat to Manhattan Tuesday morning.
Another area resident, Mary Olm, said she rides the ferry about three times a week and noticed an issue with one of the pier’s two walkways, where yellow tape cordoned off the front end of that plank.
The heavily-subsidized waterborne transit service is run by private operator Hornblower and overseen by the city’s quasi-public business boosting arm, the Economic Development Corporation.
Among the other piers with frequent outages were some the EDC recently opened or renovated, such as the St. George stop on Staten Island’s North Shore, which debuted in August connecting to Manhattan’s West Side as part of a $44 million expansion, but has since had to close down six times.
The South Williamsburg pier in Brooklyn has closed seven times, despite getting a $6.7 million makeover in July, as well as DUMBO, which shuttered five times after a $4.7 million revamp in June.
3 comments:
I’m shocked to hear that any level of the government lies to us.
Then they wonder why some people don’t trust them when they say you should/should not do something
It's all about pandering.
Ferries were supposed to water (no pun intended) the transit deserts, but they didn't. All they did was create hazards and debt.
Also, the people who reside in the deserts knew of the public transportation problems. So why did they choose to live there?
Naturally, with the City involved, it's all a mess. But I love the ferry. So what if it loses money (nickels and dimes compared to all the other junk we waste money on). It's the kind of thing a world-leading city SHOULD have on its waterways. Though NYC is world-leading less and less by the day.
Post a Comment