Questions About Staten Island Ferry's Future Plans

With over 19 million passengers a year and demand still rising, the Staten Island Ferry seems to be at a critical point. The Staten Island Advance outlines the issues--there's repeated requests to increase nighttime service (it only runs hourly), plus the DOT may look at larger ferries, to deal with capacity. Also, there's talk of adding a new route on the South Shore (currently, commutes from there take over 90 minutes); State Senator Andrew Lanza said, "The South Shore is probably the most underserved and cut off from mass transit in all of New York City. We pay taxes like everyone else, and we deserve to get our fair share of options."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on August 10, 2008 3:12 PM

Comments [rss]

KingLeer

Why does everyone make fun of the Island?

I thought only those who had to live there for a duration are allowed to do that?

The worst are haters who aren't even from New York and rip SI.

fedup7777

A DIRECT SUBWAY LINK, STATEN ISLAND TO MANHATTAN WOULD BE A BRILLIANT IDEA!

OOOPS! I SAID BRILLIANT AND STATEN ISLAND BOTH IN THE SAME SENTENCE! TALKING ABOUT A BOROUGH WHERE GOD FORBID SOMEBODY LEARNS HOW TO DRIVE! HEY, ITS NOT A RACE YOU KNOW JOEY BOOM BAZ.

BUT YEAH A SUBWAY LINK IS CRUCIAL

rarelement

We should return to the 1972 subway map that doesn't even show SI. Why would you move to the south shore of SI if you didn't expect a 90 minute commute?

imsmith

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/

starrygordon

Putting subway tracks on the Verrazzano Bridge was widely discussed at the time it was built (the mid-1960s). Robert Moses was against it, of course, because it would have served all kinds of people, if you know what I mean. And so were the people of Staten Island, by and large. I mean, colored persons could just get on the train and ride it over the bridge to the pristine sweetnesses of Annadale and New Dorp. Well, time went by, and at least the north end of the island has become pretty multi-ethnic -- pretty Third-World, actually, with a lot of people from Mexico, Albania, and Nigeria, to say nothing of America's native-born non-Euro types. The world has not come to an end, and yet the people of the "South Shore", including Heartbreak Village and the other new developments, voted 8-to-1 for Giuliani against Dinkins, which may tell you something. I don't know if they're ready to be connected to the rest of New York by anything other than their SUVs. I suppose they might go for a ferry from South Shore points if it were expensive enough to keep the improperly pigmented out and yet subsidized by the city so they themselves didn't have to pay much for it.

As for the Staten Island ferry, it does not need bigger ferries so much as it needs ferries running as often as they did in the old days -- one every ten minutes during busy periods.

NorthShore

Oh boy, another "isn't Staten Island part of NJ."

Damn, that's so clever! Who do you write for, anyway?

Kojak

Once the South Ferry subway terminal is compete demand will rise even higher.

A 2nd avenue subway line to Staten Island wouldn't be a bad idea, but I'm not sure how they can justify the expense given the Island's small population and the distance between lower Manhattan and SI. It might be easier linking the R in Brooklyn to the Staten Island Rail via underwater tunnel as its much closer.