Lawmakers Want Hudson River Service Included In New Ferry Plan
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Several city leaders are calling for the citywide ferry plan to include Hudson River ferry service.
Councilmembers Ydanis Rodriguez and Mark Levine are pleading with Mayor Bill de Blasio to include Riverdale, Inwood, Washington Heights and West Harlem in his new ferry plan, which was announced last February.
"There's one piece of the map that's blank, nothing on the west side of Manhattan," Levine said. "We think there is an incredible opportunity to use existing infrastructure in West Harlem to link south to Midtown and downtown for commuters, to link north to our friends up in Riverdale and Inwood but also to cross the Hudson River."
Rodriguez said new commuter ferry service is sorely needed on Manhattan's Hudson River shoreline.
"New Yorkers along the west side up to Riverdale want and need this service as well," Rodriguez said.
The first of the new ferry services now in the pipeline is projected to begin next year and will supposedly match the subway fare.
The plan is for the first three routes to originate from the Astoria, Rockaways and South Brooklyn sections of the city in 2017. The next year, additional routes would start for Soundview in the Bronx, and the Lower East Side.
The five new routes would join the ferry routes already in existence, the Staten Island Ferry route and the East River Ferry route. The city also is looking ahead to a potential Coney Island/Staten Island route.
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