Q&A
Council Member Ariola raises concerns about Rockaway Peninsula ferry service
1:40:00
·
3 min
Council Member Joann Ariola discusses various issues and concerns regarding the ferry service to the Rockaway Peninsula with James Wong from the NYC Economic Development Corporation. Topics include the need for increased service, erosion caused by ferry speed, and changes to the ferry schedule affecting commuters.
- Ariola requests consideration for subsidies for residents in specific area codes.
- She highlights the problem of erosion caused by high-speed ferries passing close to shore.
- There's a discussion about changes to the 5:15 PM ferry schedule and its impact on commuters.
Joann Ariola
1:40:00
Thank you, chair.
1:40:01
Thank you so much for coming today.
1:40:05
I know that that everyone is enjoying that we have ferry transportation, especially to the Rockaway Peninsula, which I have the honor of sharing representing with chairwoman Sylvia Brooks Paris.
1:40:18
That being said, we do need more service.
1:40:22
We do need you to to identify that probably the most of your income and the most ridership consistently is from Manhattan to the Rockaway Peninsula.
1:40:34
So I'd like to see some type of subsidy for those who live in the 11693 to 11691 area codes.
1:40:43
So just put that on your radar.
1:40:46
We are having a really big problem with the ferry system while it's traveling from Manhattan to the Rockwood Peninsula.
1:40:53
It passes the areas of Roxbury and Breezy Point.
1:40:58
At the point, it passes It is going at a very high rate of speed, and it is very close to the shore.
1:41:04
And what what's happening is it's causing an acceleration of erosion for the beaches that are there and a deterioration of the seawall that was there, put there for the resiliency after a superstorm Sandy.
1:41:17
So we have reached out to your intergovernmental office, and we will be setting up a meeting to see what we can do.
1:41:22
But I wanted to put that on your radar that that the very has to slow down.
1:41:27
It must slow down, and it has to go further out into the channel because it's creating actual waves on a bait side where it looks like it's a beach or an ocean beach and not a bait side beach.
1:41:38
So I just wanna put that on your your radar.
1:41:41
The other thing is, last year, you adjusted the 5.15 ferry to to be kind of like a 535 or 5.36 ferry, which caused, like, havoc because there were the people that were commuting from downtown to the Rockaway's.
1:41:56
Now the ferry was overcrowded and they had to wait for a later ferry.
1:42:00
Is this something that you're going to do again this year off season or how we learned from last year that it just didn't work?
James Wong
1:42:07
So one of the things that we really focus on through the scheduling is to make sure that we are providing consistent and reliable service.
1:42:14
And what's really important to us in fact is making sure that there are enough seats, particularly as you mentioned for the Rockaway riders, which has a really consistent and ridership base for those who are commuting.
1:42:25
What we found was that in the PM peak, we were struggling last summer, so not this past summer, but the summer prior, where people who were going to the beach for fun also competing for seats with people who are trying to get home.
1:42:39
So what happened was we actually added service, which is what led to a slight shift in the departure schedule, is that there were more ferries per hour departing to go to the railways than previously.
1:42:50
So While we shifted the schedule, it's actually increasing the capacity to get more and more people on.
1:42:55
What we did this year is just made sure that we really got to people early and often.
1:43:00
So there were announcements made, emails, sent, a lot of service advisories to all of our Rockaway riders.
1:43:05
Along with everyone else to make sure that they knew the schedule was changing.
1:43:10
This year, I have not heard of as many concerns about that shift, and people tend to were able to get a little bit more familiar with those seasonal changes.
1:43:19
But like I said, we wanna make sure that we are providing enough service for people who wanna get places?
Joann Ariola
1:43:24
Yeah.
1:43:25
Our office got innumerable complaints because that 5 15 that commuters were dedicated to get on, and there were many of them were now pushed back, and they were put back with with people who are getting out later from work and getting on to the same ferry.
1:43:39
So if you haven't made the change yet, I would ask you not to and to keep it as is that 5 15 ferry is widely utilized by the commuters from our district who are dedicated commuters and ferry riders.
1:43:51
So thank you so much.
James Wong
1:43:53
Thank you.