Riding on the Waves of the Past

By Jamie Cassermere

The 1989 movie “Back to the Future Part II” envisioned a 21st Century full of artificial intelligence and advanced technologies. Instead of vehicles as we know them today, the movie featured hovercrafts moving people around.  Yet in 2009, merely six years shy of the time in which the movie took place, some commuters traveling south from the suburbs to New York City along the Hudson River are looking back into time to an antiquated form of transportation.

While carpooling (in cars that still run on gas and pavement) and trains are still the preferred means of transportation, more commuters, especially those in Rockland and western Westchester counties, have been utilizing a bygone method of travel…the ferry. “For me, it is easier and cheaper,” said Jennalie Peralta, a commuter who travels from Haverstraw to Grand Central on weekdays for work.  “And I don’t like to drive, so I prefer taking the ferry and Metro-North.”

In the United States, ferries have been used for transporting passengers and goods since the 17th Century, petering out in the early 20th century due to the popularity of cars and the accompanying bridges and tunnels.  According to the Westchester County Historical Society’s records, the history of ferry travel on the Hudson River dates back to at least the 18th century, when a ferry ran between what is now Dobbs Ferry in Westchester and Sneden’s Landing in Rockland.

Additionally, the Hudson River played an important part in history in 1807 when Robert Fulton’s first commercial steamboat, the North River Steamboat, later called the Clermont, made its maiden voyage from Manhattan to Albany.

Interactive map: Hudson River Ferries–Then and Now

However, despite the rich history of ferries on the river, rail travel is still popular.  On the surface it would appear that a reemergence of ferries would be a threat to rail travel, but it simply isn’t so according to Metro-North Railroad, which operates commuter rail service to the northern suburbs.

“Ferries have been operated before and have had zero impact on rail travel,” said Dan Brucker, Metro-North Railroad spokesperson, “Trains themselves can travel 92 miles per hour, have an on time performance of 98 percent, are more economical, and are impervious to weather conditions, unlike ferries.”

But it’s not always adversarial.  Metro-North and the ferry operators, in some cases, have a relationship that could be described as cooperative.  “On this ferry alone,” said Thomas Lannane, an 11-year employee of New York Waterway who has worked on the Haverstraw-Ossining ferry since its inception in 2000, “we bring over anywhere from 275 to 300 people across the river daily, and about 90 or 95 percent of them are connecting to the train.”

Video: Making the Commute 

The reasons some commuters have either made the switch from rails to waves for the complete trip to New York City or just incorporated ferries into their daily commutes are as varied as the passengers themselves.

Some look forward to the ride itself.

“It’s very relaxing,” said Peralta.  “I get on and I can read if I want to, but actually I try to do my morning prayers while I look at nature.”

Still others cite time as the most influential factor.

“I’ve tried everything, from the bus to driving myself across the Tappan Zee to taking the train from Tarrytown,” said Laura Grosso, a Rockland County resident who takes the weekday ferry from Haverstraw to Ossining in order to catch a train to Grand Central Station, “But the ferry to Ossining has worked the best for me because of the short trip across and the train taking me straight to Midtown where I work, so I don’t end up having to do any extra commuting within Rockland, Westchester, or Manhattan.”

Yet as positive as ferries have proven to be, there are potential drawbacks, like their environmental impact and cost, which threaten their viability.

Over the past 10 years, prospective ferry operators across the country have had to answer to watchdog agencies as well as local and state and authorities about the impact the ferry emissions would have on the rivers’ bionetworks.  The Hudson River was no different.

“We were concerned about emissions and wake patterns, so in 2003, Riverkeeper endorsed a study done on the damaging emissions of ferries in New York Harbor,” said Andrea Kott, press liaison for Riverkeeper, a grassroots environmental organization that seeks to protect the “ecological integrity” of the Hudson River, “Since then, there haven’t been any major campaigns, but Riverkeeper continues to advocate for cleaner boating on the Hudson.”

The study, conducted by the Bluewater Network, now known as Friends of the Earth, concluded that that the ferries that traveled in New York Harbor produced emissions that were disproportionately higher than the amounts that would have been produced by passenger vehicles.

Ferry operators, such as New York Water Taxi, responded by investing in fleets with low wake hulls and up to date low emissions technologies that minimize the impact on the river’s aquatic life.

“NYWT’s boats are the first in the New York Harbor to be built with low-wake hulls that minimize their impact on the aquatic environment,” said Tom Fox, president and CEO of Harbor Experience Companies, the parent company of New York Water Taxi which operates four commuter ferries on the Hudson and East rivers,  “The hulls have a wake wash that is lower than the strictest wake standard in the Unites States and we flew the former Director of the Washington State Ferry wake reduction program to New York City to test the results.”

Additionally, Fox said that NYWT’s “vessels have always had lower emissions than required when they were built.  For example, our newest boat not only has engines that meet the current emission requirements, but a generator that meets requirements which will not be in effect until 2012.”

However, protecting the river’s ecosystem isn’t usually a determining factor in passengers deciding to utilize ferry service, money is.  And if the numbers aren’t lying, it doesn’t appear to be economically sound to commute to Manhattan solely on ferries.

A monthly pass on Metro-North from Yonkers to Grand Central costs $169 and the ticket holder can then travel anywhere between Yonkers and Grand Central, which is a 25-minute ride, for the entire month at any time the trains are in service.  The 40-ride ticket from New York Water Taxi costs $320, and is limited to 10 45-minute rides per week and the ferry only operates during peak morning and evening hours.  That’s nearly twice the price and twice the time.

Unfortunately, grumblings of ferry operators nearing bankruptcy due to the economic crisis have caused commuters faithful to ferries to feel uncertain about what the absence would mean for their daily commutes.

“If the ferries go out of business, I won’t be able to work,” said Valerie Light, a reverse commuter from New York City who goes to Haverstraw, where she works as a painter.  “As an independent contractor, my business depends on my ability to get where I need to go at the times I need to be there.  So if the ferries are gone, I have no feasible alternative way to get there.”

Grosso agrees.  “If I was forced to commute any other way, I would have to change my entire work schedule around, losing the hours I currently work, which are ideal, which would also mean I’d have to sacrifice time with my children.”

However, despite the current economic situation, which has hit some ferry operators hard, like New York Waterway, which received over $5 million last year to continue ferry services through December 2010, other ferry operators were still optimistic that their business would not suffer, and more importantly, would grow.

“We believe that waterborne transport should have a big future on the Hudson as the Hudson River cities and towns were built where they are because of access to the river for transportation and commerce,” said Fox. “As they are revitalized, waterborne transport should play as big a role in their future economies as it did when they created it.”