The city authorities plan to reduce ferry service during the winter months in line with the expected reduction of passenger traffic. The official said Thursday at a meeting of the city Council.
According to James Wong, Vice-President, ports and transport in the Corporation of the city economic development (EDC), in peak hours the ferry service will operate as before, however, in the middle of the day during the week and at the weekend a number of ferries on the routes will be reduced. EDC is also in the process in the translation process of the new ferry stations in «winter mode»: they set the screens that protect from the wind, and infrared heaters.
During the first six months of operation, the ferry service, NYC Ferry transported more than two million passengers. This number significantly surpassed the forecasts. Such a challenge to transport infrastructure has led to congestion and long queues and delays. In order not to repeat this mistake in the future season, the service operators NYC Ferry are working to get boats increased capacity.
Some officials doubt that the reduction in ferry service is a good idea, as this will lead to the fact that the stations of the newly formed queue, and the boats will not be enough room for everyone, because the passengers will not be able to use the upper deck. However, the EDC was saying that the ferry capacity of 150 people does not change the number of used decks. It is based on how many people can be evacuated in the event of any problems.
Furthermore, skeptics argue that the ferries are not the most reliable mode of transport, because if there are any failures in the system and the boat does not come to the station on schedule, the passengers lose a huge amount of time wasting on waiting for the next ferry. The representative of EDC said that they are working on improving the notification system and prepared a special appthat will help the ferry service to quickly contact passengers.
