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State looks at new inner-harbor ferry
By adamg on Wed, 12/13/2017 - 10:37am
NorthEndWaterfront.com reports state transportation officials are looking at possible routes for a ferry that would shuttle between the downtown/North End side of the Harbor, the South Boston Waterfront and the East Boston/Charlestown side of the briny shallow. The exact routes and stops are still under study.
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Comments
Make it affordable and ...
... it will be a good thing.
and make
Charlie Card passes actually usable (until the new system is in place, of course).
Give away stuff for free and
Give away stuff for free and people will like it.
Except
It's not free. We all had to pay like $0.00001 for it in our taxes this year.
Let’s be clear, a lot of
Let’s be clear, a lot of people who live in Eastie are on fixed incomes, let’s hope that the fares on these ferries are affordable to all residents , Not everyone in Eastie come from wealthy backgrounds (Here son , here’s $900k go buy yourself a luxurious condo on the waterfront, I forgot, here’s an extra $50k for your annual ferry fare)
The current Charlestown Ferry
is like $3.50 each way, and accepts 7 day passes (though inexplicably, not monthly or daily).
Yes, that is for the current ferry.
We have no idea, at this point, what will be this ferries fare if the plan comes to reality.
True
but I think it's a pretty fair point of reference.
The ferry accepts monthly
The ferry accepts monthly passes, as long as they're printed on a CharlieTicket.
This pretty much
sums up the inefficiency of the MBTA in one sentence. How many people get monthly passes on a paper ticket vs refilling their Charlie Card? And before anyone takes commuter rail passes into account, tell me how many would be using local ferries on a regular basis?
They're working on it
AFC 2.0 means all fare media will be accepted on all modes.
Can't they just
Install floating bike lanes?
xTREME Wave Action Racing!
That would be fun during high wind/storm conditions - extreme riding!
What would happen when someone tried to drive on it , though?
Harbor routes
within the City, should be included in the link pass.
No they shouldnt
Capital investment cost money and if the ferry is included in the link pass, guess what. We'd simply be robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Capital budgets
and operational budgets have different sources. Our fares go to the operational budgets. Integrated transit payment works better for users, meaning more people use it than would otherwise, and revenues from ridership go up.
This idea seems to get tossed
This idea seems to get tossed around every 18 months or so and goes no where.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/07/06/another-try-for-ferry-se...
Any ferry services would have to run continuous during rush hour, be affordable, and enclosed to protect from the elements.
Personally I think it's a great idea with the exception of the Airport. There is always ferry / water taxi service there and it's really not that much more convenient to then have to take a shuttle bus to the terminal. The focus of any new service should be connecting existing, but disconnected transport hubs (North Station, Maverick, WTC/Fan Pier)
Keep folks out of Park Street & Gov't Station!
Anything that keeps commuters out of Park Street and Government Stations is a beautiful thing.
We spend lots of time thinking about what new route would get the most total commuters. The flip side, though, is that a route that removes commuters from what are now the most congested routes is extremely valuable, even if it doesn't in itself serve the largest numbers.
Well...
How about the MBTA just revives its former ferry Route F5? It connected North Station [Lovejoy Wharf] to Rowes Wharf, Fan Pier and the WTC. Some trips were scheduled to run via the Navy Yard. Until no more trips were scheduled at all in 2005. As an inner harbor ferry, charge the Charlestown Ferry fare and accept Zone 1A and weekly/monthly Link passes.
I'll take my consultant's fee in small unmarked bills, please.
well...
...is it ok if they're stained with red ink?
This route seems unnecessary
Water taxis already travel these routes - why make a ferry? If it actually stopped somewhere new, say UMass Boston, this would be useful to residents!
Because water taxis cost...
... an arm and a leg.
A stop at Umass is on the proposed route.
Nope
This map does not show UMass Boston as a stop:
https://northendwaterfront.com/2017/12/inner-harbor-ferry-circulator-con...
The current water taxi costs $10 + tip.
$10 + tip
Ain't cheap.
UMass ferry landing
This is from the linked article.