Warm weather still feels far away, but the reality of an NYC Ferry landing in the Bronx’s Soundview neighborhood, slated to open this summer, is moving closer.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday that the construction of the Soundview landing, which will launch the sixth NYC Ferry route, is making good progress. Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, the city’s Economic Development Corporation, elected officials and community leaders recently toured the construction site.
This ferry landing will serve a route that will connect Soundview with Manhattan’s East 90th Street, another new landing, as well as existing stops at East 34th Street and Wall Street/Pier 11.
Riders on this route can also make free connections, through those last two landings, to lines that serve Astoria, Rockaway, East River, Lower East Side and South Brooklyn.
The Soundview route is expected to serve 400,000 riders a year. Also opening this summer is a Lower East Side route, which is anticipated to serve nearly 1 million commuters traveling to and from Wall Street/Pier 11, Corlears Hook, Stuyvesant Cove, East 34th Street and Long Island City.
“Extending NYC Ferry service to the residents of communities in the South Bronx is essential as we work to make New York a more equitable and traversable city,” said James Patchett, president of New York City Economic Development Corporation, in a statement. “The two new routes that will start ferrying passengers this summer are a welcomed addition to the already wildly popular system.”
In 2017, NYC Ferry served nearly 3 million riders across four routes. That ridership was higher than expected, and spurred the construction of six higher-capacity boats, equipped with larger engines and designed to hold up to 349 passengers per ferry.
Now, with the sixth ferry route in the works, officials project NYC Ferry will carry more than 4.6 million trips per year through 23 vessels across six routes.
