Riverdale Ferry Coalition

BY MANNY GROSSMAN, RIVERDALE PRESS If Ari Hoffnung gets his way, Riverdale residents can sail down the Hudson River to get to work each day. On Monday, Mr. Hoffnung, joined by a handful of supporters known as the Riverdale Ferry Coalition, held a press conference aboard a New York Water Taxi to tout the benefits of ferry service and to kick off a drive to bring a ferry stop to Riverdale. The biggest draw, Mr. Hoffnung said, is shorter commute times into lower Manhattan. A typical ferry ride from the Yonkers dock, where Mr. Hoffnung and his crew departed, to lower Manhattan, takes anywhere from 35 to 43 minutes depending on the current, said Capt. Carl Madsen of the New York Water Taxi. With service already extended north to Yonkers and in Haverstraw in Rockland County, Mr. Hoffnung said adding a stop in Riverdale would require a "relatively low capital investment" of building a dock and adding additional shuttle bus service for commuters.

Congressman Eliot Engel and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who attended the press conference, both endorsed the idea of a ferry. "It ought to be looked at," said Mr. Engel, adding, "there are always federal transportation funds available."

Last year, in an effort to draw more business downtown, the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation gave New York Water Taxi, a private company, $4.2 million in federal and state funds to develop and operate the ferry line.

Yonkers, which is working feverishly to develop and enliven its waterfront, received the lion’s share of the grant to rebuild its dock at the end of Getty Square. Ferry service opened in May but received a lukewarm response from commuters.

Now, six months after opening, New York Water Taxi estimates that 100 people in total take the ferry each weekday. (There is no service on weekends.) Commuters on Monday’s 7:50 a.m. direct to lower Manhattan had nothing but praise for the ferry ride.

"It’s much more pleasant," said Alura Immediato, who stopped using Metro-North in favor of the ferry. Ms. Immediato said she used to take Metro-North to the No. 6 train at Grand Central Station, only to still have to walk 15 minutes to her office. Her new commute drops her off almost at the front door of her office, in much less time than it used to take. For her, the transfer to the subway was the main reason she decided to use the ferry.

Joffre Maguez, who used to take the Metro-North to the subway to attend classes in lower Manhattan, said that while the ferry costs him $2 more, it is a "comfortable ride, and that’s very important. Now I’m getting my money’s worth." He also pointed to the free coffee and muffins provided every morning as an added benefit.

Right now, the $12 cost of a ferry ride from Yonkers to lower Manhattan is $4 more than a Metro-North ride down to Grand Central Station. Getting down to planning, Mr. Hoffnung said he is not an engineer and therefore doesn’t endorse any particular site for where a new dock could be built, but he suggested the Riverdale Metro-North station or the Spuyten Duyvil Triangle, where plans for a large power plant were squashed in December 2003.

Capt. Madsen said a stop at the Spuyten Duyvil Metro-North station would not be a good idea because the vessels cannot go under the drawbridge that carries Metro-North’s tracks down the west side of Manhattan.

Mr. Hoffnung said that Monday’s press conference was simply the "beginning of a journey, but not a long one." He expects that if the political will exists, it would only take about three years to make ferry service in Riverdale a reality. Original Story>>>

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