Eric Adams ups NYC Ferry fares to $4, adds discounts for low-income residents
Mayor Eric Adams will raise fares on the city’s highly subsidized ferry system to $4 beginning Sept. 12 — while dolling out discounts to low-income New Yorkers and offering a reservation-only Rockaway express to the more well-off.
Under the mayor’s plan, senior citizens, people with disabilities and New Yorkers enrolled in the city’s “Fair Fares” program will only be charged $1.35 — as opposed to $2.75 — starting Sept. 12.
“To those who say it’s just for the affluent New Yorkers, it’s just wrong,” Adams said at an announcement at the Astoria Ferry Landing. “If we have those who have to pay a higher fare to subsidize the others, that’s a win-win for me.”
The $4 fare is for “tourists and infrequent riders,” the mayor said. Frequent riders will also be able to buy a 10-ticket pass for $27.50 — the cost of a subway ride and the current fare for a ferry ride — and the city will give two free rides to NYCHA residents “to introduce” them to the service.
Adams also plans to launch an $8-per-ride reservation-based weekend shuttle from Lower Manhattan to Rockaway starting July 23 through Labor Day to alleviate crowding on the regular Rockaway line — which remains the most popular.
“We want to get those who were afraid of using the system, not believing the system is for them,” Adams said. “We are going to dig deeper into who’s not utilizing this ride.”
City taxpayers subsidize ferry trips at as much as $14.75 per ride, according to a recent audit by city Comptroller Brad Lander. But former Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted for years on keeping the fare at $2.75 — even as the city’s own research found ridership was primarily among higher income New Yorkers and tourists.
Lander said the money-losing ferry system was operating far deeper in the red than previously acknowledged by the EDC, which in 2016 estimated that taxpayers would have to subsidize the service at a cost of $6.60 per ride.
Some 1 million city residents will be eligible for the $1.35 fare, city Economic Development Corporation President Andrew Kimball said. Kimball said anticipated increased ridership combined with higher fares would reduce the per-trip subsidy.
“Our analysis shows now somewhere between $4 and $5 you start to lose ridership, ” Kimball said. “Everything we are doing is driving towards bringing that subsidy down, and we think it will come down.”
Daly NYC Ferry ridership was just 11,688 on weekdays and 12,984 on weekends in the first three months of 2022. Summer ridership is higher, but only just returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, according to city officials.
