MTR Admiralty Posted April 17, 2009 Share #1 Posted April 17, 2009 Rockland Ferry Service Sinks Ferry service from Rockland County to Lower Manhattan will end May 1, after the pilot program failed to generate enough traffic to support it. Fewer than two-dozen people ride from Haverstraw to the World Financial Center and Wall St.’s Pier 11 on an average morning, according to reports. Ridership has been low ever since New York Water Taxi added the Haverstraw stop in September 2007, but it had increased 30 percent in the past year, said Tom Fox, president of Water Taxi. “It’s very difficult to change people’s commuting habits and get them out of their cars, but once we get a customer, we never lose them,” Fox said in a phone interview. Water Taxi will continue running ferries from Lower Manhattan to Yonkers, though funding is tight on that line as well. Fox said he was looking at the frequency of that ferry, which makes four roundtrips a day. Rockland County and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. had funded the pilot extension from Yonkers up to Haverstraw with other government grants totaling $7.2 million, according to The Journal News, a Hudson Valley paper. Water Taxi would have needed an additional $3.4 million to continue the service, the paper said. One problem with government grants is that they don’t provide money for advertising, Fox said. He contrasted the rollout of the Haverstraw service with the rollout of a new Coca-Cola beverage — the latter would be preceded by a marketing campaign lasting several months and costing millions of dollars. “It’s a lesson in the future that it’s not just the operations [of the ferry service], but it’s making sure people understand the project is available,” Fox said. Fox thinks the government should continue investing in ferry service to reduce congestion in the city, because those who can no longer take the ferry from Haverstraw will likely return to their cars, he said. The ferry offered the only one-seat mass transit ride from Haverstraw to Lower Manhattan. — Julie Shapiro Wow, this sucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo M 201 Posted April 18, 2009 Share #2 Posted April 18, 2009 Damn, I wanted to try this service too. Maybe next week I'll try and get an evening ride on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTR Admiralty Posted April 18, 2009 Author Share #3 Posted April 18, 2009 The Riverdale people won't be happy either, they saw the Yonkers ferry as a possible stepping stone towards a Manhattan-Riverdale ferry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeystoneRegional Posted April 19, 2009 Share #4 Posted April 19, 2009 Please, watch the Nazi Banksters Crimes Ripple Effect at http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forest Glen Posted April 19, 2009 Share #5 Posted April 19, 2009 I doubt people even knew this service existed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo M 201 Posted April 19, 2009 Share #6 Posted April 19, 2009 I doubt people even knew this service existed. Exactly, this service was not promoted enough. NY Water Taxi was hoping it would take off like the Yonkers ferry, but the difference was promotion. It should've been promoted like the Rockaway ferry was, even though it is not doing as great as expected, its still doing good. I might take another trip on the Rockaway ferry soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTR Admiralty Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share #7 Posted April 20, 2009 I doubt people even knew this service existed. That is very true, ask arbitrarily 100 people in Manhattan. How many would have heard of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo M 201 Posted April 20, 2009 Share #8 Posted April 20, 2009 That is very true, ask arbitrarily 100 people in Manhattan. How many would have heard of it? More like ask 50 people in Rockland county and see if they have heard of the service (or better yet know about it and have not even tried it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTR Admiralty Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share #9 Posted April 20, 2009 More like ask 50 people in Rockland county and see if they have heard of the service (or better yet know about it and have not even tried it). Many don't. It's not as heavily advertised as the NY Waterway routes to New Jersey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo M 201 Posted April 20, 2009 Share #10 Posted April 20, 2009 Many don't. It's not as heavily advertised as the NY Waterway routes to New Jersey. Well, the article is about the NY Water Taxi service to Haverstraw. NY Waterway only provides service to Ossining from Haverstraw. But yeah, the NY Waterway services to New Jersey would still be heavily used without the advertisement because before they really went hard about advertising, service and ridership was pretty good (rising fuel cost turned some people away which forced NY Waterway to put more advertisement out). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTR Admiralty Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share #11 Posted April 20, 2009 Well, the article is about the NY Water Taxi service to Haverstraw. NY Waterway only provides service to Ossining from Haverstraw. But yeah, the NY Waterway services to New Jersey would still be heavily used without the advertisement because before they really went hard about advertising, service and ridership was pretty good (rising fuel cost turned some people away which forced NY Waterway to put more advertisement out). The thing about it, I'm not quite sure, is that this service is a rush hour service. So not many trips are made. Plus, it could have served better destinations. While Haverstraw does have commuters, other stops should be sought down the line. That would lure more passengers. And again, marketing and advertising is important. Very few people heard of this line, and even fewer actually ride it regularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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