The county’s new ferry terminal in Belford is scheduled for completion next June. By last August, most in the transportation business thought the odds were quite small that N.Y. Waterway, the county’s ferry operator, would acquire the boats needed to operate a useful ferry service.
After Sept. 11, further problems surfaced. The market for the one possible Belford ferry route has been decimated and the plans for its new Manhattan ferry terminal indefinitely postponed.
N.Y. Waterway is not purchasing the three long-distance ferries it contracted to provide. At this point, the odds of a useful ferry service at Belford are nonexistent!
When eventually asked by the county to describe the ferry service to be provided at Belford in 2002, N.Y. Waterway will most likely suggest delaying the start of service until 2003 or 2004. If the freeholders refer to the Oct. 30, 2000, contract requiring service to start by Dec. 8, 2002, the ferry operator will balk. It will renege on its offer to build three new 30-knot boats designed for all-weather crossings of the lower bay. They will not provide the contract schedule’s 7 a.m. departures from Belford and 11 p.m. return trips.
Other things have changed over the years since the ferry project was announced. There are now two ferry operators in the Highlands providing 10 morning trips to the East River’s Pier 11 (Wall Street) and 16 evening return trips using five very large and fast boats.
Most trips include a stop at East 34th Street. Space for additional passengers is available on all trips. No Belford service to the East River could compete with this existing service.
The county and its consultants, TAMS (engineering firm), have therefore recognized that the only possible Belford service would be to the Hudson River, stopping first at the World Financial Center (WFC) adjacent to the WTC site.
That service might also be extended to a second stop in midtown Manhattan.
The Sept. 11 disaster has had a profound effect on Belford’s prospects for a service to the WFC. More than half of the WTC-area office space has been lost for decades to come.
The Port Authority’s plans to build a larger WFC ferry terminal to accommodate suburban boats have been indefinitely delayed. Even if N.Y. Waterway had suitable suburban boats, there is no viable Belford ferry service to which they might be applied.
Two questions remain. Will the county complete the $17 million project in 2002 and start service with an absurdly small fraction of the Belford ferry service N.Y. Waterway promised, or will it board the terminal up and hope that someone, someday, may put it to some use? And finally, when will the public be informed of the county’s choice?
Robert J. Riker
Rumson