Seafaring New Yorkers will have a bevy of new options for traversing the city via its waterways come Monday, Dec. 8, when NYC Ferry launches service on its revamped routes.
The ferry system, which is run by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), announced its refreshed routes last month as part of its NYC Ferry Optimization Plan, The redesign, the system’s first since it began operations in 2017, is intended to shorten commute times, improve effeciency, boost ridership, and give ferry users more destinations to travel to, according to the EDC.
DC President & CEO Andrew Kimball, in a statement last month, said the new routes will “deliver faster commutes, better connections, and improved service for New Yorkers across all five boroughs.”
NYC Ferry and the EDC finalized the reconfiguration after receiving over 15,000 responses to their proposed redesign released in July.
Perhaps most notable among the new routes is one that will, for the first time in the system’s history, connect Brooklyn to Staten Island. The current Saint George route, which goes from the landing in Staten Island to West 39th Street in Manhattan, will now also include Bay Ridge and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, as well as Wall Street in Manhattan.
Ferry commutes in Brooklyn may be impacted significantly. The current East River Route will be split into two separate routes — one that stops at East 34th Street, Hunters Point South, North Williamsburg, and Wall Street/Pier 11; and one that stops at East 34th Street, Greenpoint, South Williamsburg, and Wall Street/Pier 11. The South Brooklyn Route, which currently runs between Bay Ridge and Corlears Hook with stops in Sunset Park, Red Hook, Atlantic Avenue, Wall Street/Pier 11 and Dumbo, will instead run between Governors Island and East 34th Street. Sunset Park will instead be served by the newly-combined Soundview/Rockaway route.
Bay Ridge, meanwhile, will be served by the newly-extended St. George route, which will connect Brooklyn and Staten Island for the first time since the 1960s.
Next summer, NYC Ferry will also begin a weekend pilot of extending the South Brooklyn line down to Sunset Park and Bay Ridge. It will then evaluate the success of the pilot service next fall.
Additionally, coming out of the Ferry Optimization Plan, NYC Ferry has also pledged to complete a second homeport facility already under construction in Red Hook, Brooklyn, as well as updates to the 34th Street terminal to boost boat and passenger capacity there.
The ferry system further announced last month that it would begin the process of installing new landings at East Harlem 125th Street and MADE-Bush Terminal in Sunset Park.
The new ferry routes will go into effect on the same day as another major New York transit shakeup — the Metropolitan Transportation Authority swapping the F and M lines between Manhattan and Queens.
A version of this story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site amNewYork.
