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$44 Million Ferry Terminal Is to Open in Weehawken
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
New Jersey residents who commute to Manhattan by ferry will have a gleaming new terminal to use in Weehawken, N.J., starting today — just in time to ease the pain of an increase in fares.
The terminal, which cost $44 million in public money to build, will be the home base of New York Waterway, a private company that runs ferries between several docks in New Jersey, Midtown and Lower Manhattan. Next week, Waterway plans to raise its fares to and from the new terminal to as much as $9 each way.
New Jersey Transit, which operates trains and buses throughout the state, owns the terminal but will not run it or set fares, said Kris Kolluri, the state's commissioner of transportation and the chairman of the transit agency.
"I see this as a public-private partnership where a private company is willing to provide the type of transportation services that the public is looking for," Mr. Kolluri said.
A company affiliated with Waterway, which is controlled by the family of Arthur Imperatore, has a 32-year lease to operate the new terminal. Last fall, New York City's Economic Development Corporation opened a $56 million terminal on the West Side of Midtown, which is also operated by Waterway. The combined $100 million in spending on ferry docks was a response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when tens of thousands of panicked people evacuated Manhattan by boat.
Waterway rode to the rescue of many of them and prospered in the months that followed, expanding its operation as a substitute for the PATH train service to Lower Manhattan, while it was shut down. Since then, government officials like Mr. Kolluri have said that regular ferry service is a critical link in the region's transportation network.
But ferries, unlike other forms of mass transit in the area, receive no operating subsidies. Instead, public agencies have chosen to build the infrastructure and hope that the private operators will come.
So far, few have appeared. Waterway ran into such dire financial straits in late 2004 that it had to sell about half of its fleet and routes to a startup company, BillyBey Ferry, which is controlled by a Manhattan lawyer, William B. Wachtel.
On June 1, the Imperatore family's half of the Waterway ferry service will raise prices by 4 percent to more than 16 percent because of the high cost of fuel, said Pat Smith, a Waterway spokesman.
A one-way ticket to ride between the new terminals in Weehawken and Midtown will cost $6, up from $5.75. The one-way fare between Weehawken and the dock at the World Financial Center or at Pier 11 near Wall Street will rise to $9 from $7.75.
$44 Million Ferry Terminal Is to Open in Weehawken
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
New Jersey residents who commute to Manhattan by ferry will have a gleaming new terminal to use in Weehawken, N.J., starting today — just in time to ease the pain of an increase in fares.
The terminal, which cost $44 million in public money to build, will be the home base of New York Waterway, a private company that runs ferries between several docks in New Jersey, Midtown and Lower Manhattan. Next week, Waterway plans to raise its fares to and from the new terminal to as much as $9 each way.
New Jersey Transit, which operates trains and buses throughout the state, owns the terminal but will not run it or set fares, said Kris Kolluri, the state's commissioner of transportation and the chairman of the transit agency.
"I see this as a public-private partnership where a private company is willing to provide the type of transportation services that the public is looking for," Mr. Kolluri said.
A company affiliated with Waterway, which is controlled by the family of Arthur Imperatore, has a 32-year lease to operate the new terminal. Last fall, New York City's Economic Development Corporation opened a $56 million terminal on the West Side of Midtown, which is also operated by Waterway. The combined $100 million in spending on ferry docks was a response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when tens of thousands of panicked people evacuated Manhattan by boat.
Waterway rode to the rescue of many of them and prospered in the months that followed, expanding its operation as a substitute for the PATH train service to Lower Manhattan, while it was shut down. Since then, government officials like Mr. Kolluri have said that regular ferry service is a critical link in the region's transportation network.
But ferries, unlike other forms of mass transit in the area, receive no operating subsidies. Instead, public agencies have chosen to build the infrastructure and hope that the private operators will come.
So far, few have appeared. Waterway ran into such dire financial straits in late 2004 that it had to sell about half of its fleet and routes to a startup company, BillyBey Ferry, which is controlled by a Manhattan lawyer, William B. Wachtel.
On June 1, the Imperatore family's half of the Waterway ferry service will raise prices by 4 percent to more than 16 percent because of the high cost of fuel, said Pat Smith, a Waterway spokesman.
A one-way ticket to ride between the new terminals in Weehawken and Midtown will cost $6, up from $5.75. The one-way fare between Weehawken and the dock at the World Financial Center or at Pier 11 near Wall Street will rise to $9 from $7.75.
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 2:48 PM
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