Bronx Ferry Route, Cutting Commute From Soundview To Wall St In Half, Launched Today

NYC Ferry in Midtown Manhattan

The NYC Ferry launched today in the Bronx, connecting Soundview to East 90th Street, 34th Street, and Wall Street. The inaugural ride was this morning at 6:30 a.m., with both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. in attendance.

"This is a historic day — it’s the first time ferry service has come to the Bronx since the 1930s," the Mayor tweeted, adding, "This will cut commutes for so many New Yorkers in half and bring our city together like never before." The schedule estimates that it will take roughly 15 minutes between each stop, butting the end to end commute time in half.

“The ferry service will be a great relief to many Soundview residents who have for far too long been deprived of adequate transportation infrastructure and burdened with a long commute back and forth to work,” Senator Jeff Klein, whose district includes parts of Soundview, told the Bronx Times.

For the bigger picture, de Blasio said that since the NYC Ferry launched two years ago, five million people have used it, twice the ridership that the city expected. "It’s a classic example of, if you build it, they will come," he told PIX 11. "It says to me this experiment is working."

But that number is a drop in the bucket compared to subway ridership overall, which on an average weekday is five and a half million people. The ferry, at a cost of $600 million, also subsidizes riders at double the rate of the subway, at $6.60 per rider compared to $3.31 per rider. Each ride costs $2.75, the same as a subway or bus ride.

"A new subway car now costs about $2 million, give or take. That $600 million would get you 300 of them," reports New York magazine.

But people love the ferry! “I can get a coffee, a bagel, everyone is nice. The opposite is true of the A train: Everyone is a fucking asshole," J. Scott Klossner, a 53-year-old freelancer, who takes the Rockaway ferry, told The Village Voice. And you can drink on the Ferry.

Of course, some people worry that this Soundview ferry route is a little too convenient.

Find the full schedule here.