Daily News from New York, New York • 780

ikSfeL iriii'nr in run iiiiiiMiiiii'liiiiiirirllliiiiriTiiiiiii iiiii minim nm 111 ihriT 1 1 iiiiii li DAILY NEWS Sunday, August 28, 1988 Till IfOEU-y ODD UUD 1 4 fr jfSf 1 I Iw I -iff Ik I Ml I 1 PIER 11 in lower Manhattan is landing site for a number of ferry services. Here, commuters from Queens and Brooklyn debark from Manhattan Express boat. EDWARD MOUNAM DAILY NEWS By CHARLES EATON 3,500 passengers daily between Manhattan and five New Jersey points. Direct Line's boats operate from Highlands, Keyport, Bayonne, Newport, Liberty Harbor North and Jersey City. The firm recently entered into a contract with developer Harry Grant to provide ferry service between Manhattan and his new development on the site of the old Bethlehem Steel works in Hoboken.

Grant, who is planning to build a residential tower, office complex and luxury hotel at the location, is subsidizing part of the cost of the ferry service. Westlake is enthusiastic about ferry service in the region because of mounting traffic projections and commuter trains that are filled to capacity. "I look at New York Harbor and see an 80-lane highway with virtually no traffic," said Westlake. He added that, aside from New Jersey, his firm is looking at ferry possibilities north of the George Washington Bridge, including Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale in the Bronx. Direct Line currently runs nine boats.

Company officials are awaiting delivery of a 10th, and the possibility exists that two more boats will be purchased. Westlake said his boats are 110 feet long and have a passenger capacity of 150. They are designed for comfort and offer space and amenities not available on most commuter trains, much less buses. With many firms moving from New York to the revitalized Jersey waterfront, Westlake is positively beaming over the prospects for reverse commutation trends that would send city residents off to jobs on the New Jersey waterfront. And what's the best way to get there? Ferry, of course.

said Huerta, who believes that the addition of the new ferry pier at E. 35th St will make ferry service even more attractive. The first boats to use it are the Pan Am Water Shuttles from La-Guardia Airport One of the drawbacks to commuter ferry service is that one has to travel to a dock, whereas buses and trains are usually lots closer. Another problem is the absence of adequate parking facilities to handle potential boat travelers. The presence or lack of adequate parking facilities can make or break a ferry service.

A three-year-old proposal for ferry service from Westchester County using the Hudson River has been delayed because adequate parking has not yet been found near the Yonkers waterfront Sees success guaranteed "We are not going to offer the service until we can offer it properly," said Feiner, who noted that service could be as much as five years away. "We are convinced that ferry service will work if it is launched under the proper conditions." Feiner added that the large numbers of luxury condominiums sprouting up along the Hudson River, from Rockland County to lower Westchester, virtually guarantee the success of ferry service. The route that he has proposed includes stops at Tarrytown, Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-On-Hudson and Yonkers. "We foresee a service that carries 300 to 400 commuters a day," he asserted. Ferry service from New Jersey, on the other hand, is already booming.

John Westlake, executive vice president of Direct Line, says that his two-year-old firm is now carrying that was in service before the Williamsburg Bridge was built. During the last century, before the stone and steel leviathans were thrown up across the East and Hudson rivers, dozens of ferries dotted the city's waterways carrying thousands of passengers from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and New Jersey. After a flurry of new construction, the giant bridges cast their shadows on the ferry operators and killed them off one by one. Now, however, nearly 100 years later, the bridges are old and inadequate, and the water once again beckons. Is ferry service coming back? You can bet it is and in a big way, too! Currently, five private operators are running 14 commuter ferry services in the metropolitan area.

Every morning, the boats come from Queens, Brooklyn and New Jersey to tie up at four Manhattan sites Pier 11 at Wall Street, the Whitehall Terminal at the Battery, a barge at E. 35th St and Pier 78 at W. 38th St. The explosion of interest in ferryboats has attracted operators who are willing to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in new equipment Many of them believe that the roads and rails coming: into Manhattan have reached the saturation point and that it is now time to explore new avenues of transit. 'Numbers still growing' Michael Huerta, the city's commissioner of ports and international trade and terminals, says that worsening road conditions in the area are pushing motorists out of their cars and onto the water, the thoroughfares of the future.

"Ferry ridership in the region now stands passengers a month, and the numbers are still growing," Daily News Staff Writer riTHiN the last decade, Vji nothing has pointed up the WW fragility of New York's transportation network as much as the closing of the Williamsburg Bridge. Overnight, auto traffic was backed up for miles, subway service ground to a halt at the edge of the East River, and buses were crowded to the windows with the passenger overflow. In the early days of the bridge's closing, commuters from Williamsburg scrambled to get back and forth between their homes in Brooklyn and their jobs in Manhattan. The city, searching for something that would earn it a measure of good will and that would at the same time draw the public's attention away from the neglect that allowed the bridge to corrode to the point of closing in the first place instituted a new ferry service between the Williamsburg section and the Battery. It got high marks The temporary service it stopped running when the bridge was reopened to auto and subway service in June used Staten Island ferryboats and attracted hundreds of commuters a day.

Many of the passengers enjoyed the novel way of traveling to work and gave it high marks, a definite improvement over the decrepit BMT trains they were accustomed to. After it was discontinued, city officials said the ferry could be brought back as a regular commuter route if an interested and suitable private operator can be found. The route would be almost identical to the one IIIIIM Tim wriTi.i' 1 r- run i i 'mum.