By Ruth Brown
Brooklyn Paper
There’s another stop, but still no start.
A new ferry port at the Brooklyn Navy Yard will eventually join five others opening up on the Brooklyn waterfront sometime this summer, Mayor Bill de Basio announced Wednesday. But he refused say when the new citywide boat-based transit service would actually set sail, saying straphangers will have to wait until next month to find out.
“My specific target is this summer, ” the mayor said at a news conference. “In April we will have the announcement of specific dates and phases, but right now we’re going to have a nice, clear ‘this summer.’ ”
The city has previously said the new service would launch in June, but even if that holds true, officials revealed the lines won’t all launch at that time.
The Rockaway route — between the titular seaside Queens neighborhood, the Army Terminal in Sunset Park, and Manhattan — will launch first followed by the South Brooklyn line, which will hit stops in Bay Ridge, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Red Hook, and two in Brooklyn Bridge Park, according to city Economic Development Corp. spokesman Anthony Hogrebe. An Astoria route in Queens will be third, he said.
The newly revealed Navy Yard stop will join the existing East River Ferry route, which sails between Dumbo and Greenpoint, and won’t open until 2018. It will also serve as the new ferry system’s home port, where operator Hornblower will dock, refuel, and maintain its 20-vessel fleet, DeBlasio said.
There is also a proposed leg between Coney Island, Staten Island, and Manhattan, but that does not have the go-ahead yet.
A ferry trip will cost the same as a ride on the subway — even the East River Ferry, which will drop its current $4–$6 fare — but there is still no deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for free transfers to trains or buses, the mayor said.
“It would be ideal if we could do it as a single fare, but that’s going to take some real work because they’re operating on different systems and there’s real budgetary ramifications,” he said. “I can’t guarantee it.”
DeBlasio also used Wednesday’s presser to tout the jobs now up for grabs with the ferry service, including spots for captains, deckhands, engineers, and maintenance workers. Check them out at www.citywideferry.nyc/jobs.
