Q&A
Financial impact of new fare structure and subsidies for NYC Ferry
0:55:26
·
152 sec
EDC officials discuss the financial performance of NYC Ferry, including the impact of the new fare structure and the subsidy levels for the service.
- The recent fare change's impact on revenue is not yet fully reported
- EDC characterizes the cost of running the ferry service as a subsidy rather than a net loss, emphasizing that all public transit is subsidized
- The ferry operating subsidy was $52 million in fiscal year 2022 and $56.5 million in fiscal year 2023
- EDC has implemented new financial transparency measures, including publishing supplemental financial information on their website
James Wong
0:55:26
So the fair change just took effect, yes, So we don't yet have sort of report out numbers on what the impact of that fair change is going to be on the future.
Amanda Farías
0:55:39
In 2022, the controller performed an audit report that indicated that per EDC's audited financial statements, the net losses of the ferry operations were 30,000,000 in FY 7 2017, 44,000,000 in FY 2018, 53,000,000 in FY 2019, $53,000,000 in FY 2020 and $33,000,000 in FY 2021.
0:56:01
What is the current net gain or loss for FY 2022, 2324?
0:56:07
And what are we doing to prevent losses in future years?
James Wong
0:56:11
I think one of the most important things to approach as part of this conversation is that what we are providing is a transit service and all public transit is subsidized.
0:56:21
I would not necessarily characterize the the cost of a subsidy as a net loss something we do wanna minimize because subsidies are, of course, a financial city resource.
Amanda Farías
0:56:30
We'll let the controller know not to represent it as a net loss.
James Wong
0:56:34
But but that said, in fiscal 22, the ferry operating it was $52,000,000 and in fiscal 23, it was $56,500,000.
0:56:43
This information is available as we have made since Ferry Ford was implemented through supplemental financial information that we published on our website, which includes information about all the finances of the system from Pepsi, ridership, capital costs, and things like that.
Amanda Farías
0:57:01
Sure.
0:57:01
Can you tell me the 23 number again?
James Wong
0:57:04
23 was 56,500,000.
Amanda Farías
0:57:09
Thank you.
0:57:10
The controller's audit report also found that the CDC had in the past significantly understated, again, their reports words, understated the amount the city was subsidizing ferry rides during each year of the New York City ferry operations since our last hearing, what has the EDC done to reduce that figure?
0:57:29
And has the city subsidy increased or decreased over the past 2 years?
James Wong
0:57:33
So we've we've taken strong exception to, again, how things were characterized in their port as EDC had always reported full information related to the finances of the system.
0:57:43
However, in order to make things easier for people to access, we created the financial transparency dot the excuse me, the system supplemental financial information document, which we provide on our website.
0:57:54
So that has a lot more information about the things that are being raised.