Christine Quinn

Citywide Ferry Service Could Cost $100M Annually

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called for the introduction of comprehensive, citywide ferry service at her State of the City Address a couple of weeks ago. That made John Kaehny wonder how the ferries would be paid for and how much they'd cost. This week's Queens Chronicle seems to have part of the answer:

By Aaron Naparstek

2:58 PM EST on February 22, 2008

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called for the introduction of comprehensive, citywide ferry service at her State of the City Address a couple of weeks ago. That made John Kaehny wonder how the ferries would be paid for and how much they’d cost. This week’s Queens Chronicle seems to have part of the answer:

“(This) is an absolutely great idea,” said Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), chairman of the council’s Transportation Committee. “We need to rediscover and utilize this tremendous natural transportation resource to overcome many of the challenges faced by a growing city.”
Operating costs for the five borough ferry service could reach up to $100 million annually, according to Liu, and will require the city to combine them with debt service on capital expenditures, like building docks. But when compared with other mass transit expansions, he added, “this is a very manageable investment for the long term.”

Sounds expensive.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.