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The new ferry service between Bay Ridge and the Lower Manhattan is a long way from being able to stay afloat without help from the city.
For the just-rechristened boat route to survive after its two-year, $1.1-million city subsidy runs out, 700 commuters will need to be riding it each day, said Tom Fox, president of New York Water Taxi.
The ferry, which shuttles commuters between Rockaway and Manhattan with a stop at the 58th Street pier at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, started on Monday — three and a half months after Fox cancelled a similar service because of low ridership, high gas prices, and a lack of city funding.
Now that he has public funds and additional riders from Queens, Fox says he will be able to counter fuel costs that eat up about $200 per trip. So when the city subsidy dries up in 2010, Fox will need a surge of passengers paying the $6 fare.
“If we had 700 passengers a day, we’d break even without the subsidy,” said Fox, whose boats carried a maximum of 150 commuters per day during the first three days of its much-ballyhooed service this week.
“But this just started, so the numbers [of riders] are going to go up,” said the optimistic Fox. “As the word gets out, we’re hopeful that there will be additional demand.”
The city is also banking on increased demand for waterborne transit.
Mayor Bloomberg announced last week plans to bring new ferries to South Williamsburg in July to shuttle commuters from Schaefer Landing to the Financial District and East 34th Street.
By 2010, the city plans to construct two federally funded piers in North Brooklyn — one at the Edge condos at North Sixth Street and another at a yet-to-be-determined Greenpoint Avenue site.
Similar service was scuttled this winter due to lack of ridership and high fuel costs.
©2008 The Brooklyn Paper
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