The beautifulredeveloped new waterfront and its ferry terminal cried out for a ferry systemservice, but little happened until 1986 when Marine World/Africa USA moved to moved to a spacious new location in Vallejo from Redwood City. Suddenly, , Vallejo became a 20th Century major tourist destination, . and theA San Francisco tour boat operator, Red & White Fleet (then owned by Crowley Corporation.), put togetherbegan a ferry service to Vallejo and bus service carrying commuters to San Francisco in the morning and bringing visitors to Marine World during the midday and on weekends. Red & White Fleet purchased two new high-speed 28-knot, 400-passenger catamarans, the M/V Dolphin and the M/V Catamarin for the Vallejo run and also the firm’s Tiburon run. that would bring folks to Vallejo on a modern catamarin capable of making the trip to San Francisco in a little over one hour.

At about that same time, using state and local redevelopment funds, the City of Vallejo constructed a magnificent $1.2-million Ferry Terminal, with an adjacent $1.7 million, high-capacity float and gangway, capable offloading three hundred passengers in fewer than three minutes.

Red & White Fleet’s commute service between Vallejo and San Francisco began in September 1986. By late 1987, Red & White Fleet was making money seasonally on midday and weekend ferry runs serving Marine World, but was losing much more on the commuter runs. In March, Red & White Fleet proposed to eliminate commute-hour services between Vallejo and San Francisco, due to continuing financial losses.

In the spring, "Ferry Godmother" Cindy Detweiler and the North Bay Water Commuters (NBWC) rallied the North Bay community and saved the threatened ferry service. At a Vallejo City Council meeting in early 1988, more than 800 commuters and supporters organized by Detweiler and NBWC "stormed City Hall" to ask to Council to save and support the ferry system.

NBWC’s efforts led directly to an agreement between Red & White Fleet and the City of Vallejo that went into effect in October, 1988. Red & White Fleet agreed to continue limited commuter ferry service, as well as midday service for Marine World.

Vallejo Assumes Responsibility for Ferry Service

But, iAbout that time, several events occurred to propel the City of Vallejo into public transit.

First, with Red & White negotiating to suspend ferry service, the city put Pam Belchamber in charge of transportation planning, resulting in the city accepting responsibility for the continuation of ferry service to San Francisco.

t was apparent that Vallejo’s ferry and transit services could be substantially upgraded, particularly since Bay Area voters has recently approved "Regional Measure 1," increasing tolls on Bay Area bridges to $1.00. That toll increase provided funding not only for bridge replacement, but also operating costs for transit services that relieved congestion on the bridges. As the City of Vallejo’s Transportation Superintendent Pam Belchamber explains:

Pam Belchamber Explains

"In September 1987, the City of Vallejo began operation of ‘BartLink’ express bus service along Interstate 80 between Vallejo and the El Cerrito Del Norte BART station. A year later, we assumed responsibility for the continuance of Vallejo to San Francisco ferry service. The additional funds from the bridge toll increase went immediately into these services. We had an ideaknew that ferry service for Vallejo could be bigger than it was,services for Vallejo could be bigger than it was, much bigger than a one boat, one run per commute system. since wWe have had a growing community and a growing county. Vallejo increased in population from about 80,000 in 1980 to 109,000 people in the 1990 census. Solano County increased from 235,000 people in 1980 to more than 340,000 in 1990.

"Our confidence in the potential for ferry service was made obvious to the entire Bay Area community on October 17, 1989…"

We have a population with huge numbers that are working in the SF Financial District. In 1980, when we did our first survey, we had 5,000 people living in Vallejo who worked in the Financial District; so, we knew that we had the demographics. We also had the enthusiasm and great support from the community, the riders, and the business community. But, we didn’t have an effective regional transportation system, and did not see BART coming up I-80 and crossing the Carquinez Bridge. We also knew that traffic congestion on I-80 was only going to get worse. So, with a beautiful body of water and a waterfront waiting for ferry service, ferries appeared to be an alternative that would worked for us. And, it all came together sooner than we thought!