Lower East Side Ferry Launches As De Blasio Considers New Lines

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — The Lower East Side NYC Ferry route launched Wednesday — the last of six ferry lines sailing New Yorkers across the city's waterways.

For a $2.75 fare, transit starved Lower East Siders can voyage form Corlears Hook north to Stuyvesant Cove, East 34th Street and finally to Long Island City, or travel south to Wall Street's Pier 11. The new route will help locals slash lengthy commutes, said the mayor at a Wednesday news conference.

"For a lot of people in this community, to get to a subway is a 10 minute walk, 20 minute walk — just to get to a subway," said Mayor Bill de Blasio at the Corlears Hook ferry stop. "Now, they can get on this ferry — they can be at Wall Street in seven minutes, they can be at Midtown in less than 20 minutes. That time — what’s more precious to New Yorker’s than time?"

Some Lower East Siders have elaborate commutes to get to work, including one East River Houses resident who works at Baruch College in Kips Bay, and takes the M14A bus to the Delancey—Essex Street station where he hops on the F train to the Broadway—Lafayette stop and transfers yet again to the 6 train, finally ending his trek at the 23rd Street station. Now, he can shave 20 minutes off his 30 minute commute by taking the Lower East Side route from Corlears Hook to Stuyvesant Cove.

The entire route — from Wall Street to Long Island City — can be traveled in roughly the same amount of time it took him to travel two neighborhoods over to work, he said.

"I can travel that whole [Lower East Side] route in the same amount of time it used to take me to get to work by subway and bus all while enjoying the great views of the city from the river," said Michael Marino, the founder of Friends of Corlears Hook Park and a Lower East Side resident for the last six years. "So that’s pretty awesome and I think that’s a game changer for everyone in the neighborhood.”

The new route's Stuyvesant Cove stop will also serve as a valuable life line for stranded L train riders during the 15-month L train shutdown come April, 2019, said one councilman whose district includes part of Gramercy.

“As we hit the L train shutdown, coming in just a few months, this is not only going to be a thing that’s going to be a convenience, but this is going to be a requirement to get people around," said Councilman Keith Powers. "And this ferry is going to be one of the ways that people in Peter Cooper and Stuyvesant and my neighbors and myself get around the city during that shutdown."

One million riders are expected to sail along the Lower East Side route, the city projects. Since its May 2017 launch, NYC Ferry has served more than 6 million riders across the Astoria, East River, South Brooklyn, Rockaway and Soundview routes, the mayor said Wednesday.

And more ferry routes are on the horizon. The city plans to decid on additional routes by the year's end, said the mayor.

"There’s a lot of parts of the city that want ferry service," said de Blasio at the Wednesday conference. "We’ll be making those decisions by the end of the year."

Photo courtesy of NYC Mayor's Office