North Bay / Delta

North Bay Ready and Waiting for Ferry Service

North Bay communities are eagerly watching as the Water Transit Authority begins the work of establishing a framework for a ferry system to serve the ever-expanding region and its nearly one million people. Historically served by water transit beginning in the 1850s, it is indeed, as the 1999 Water Transit Initiative stated, a time when the past is prologue.

Now that the very bridges that doomed water transit are clogged with long lines of barely moving vehicles, ferries are once again a transportation idea whose time has come. In fact, transportation troubles topped the list of concerns in a recent newspaper poll of area residents conducted by the Bay Area Council.

In very legal-sounding language, section 66540.22 of SB 428 spells out precisely what the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Implementation and Operations Plan must cover, in details ranging from subsection a through subsection p.

Charlene Johnson, president of the Water Transit Authority, said the group has its work cut out for it. In order to simplify or at least make manageable the hiring of the team of consultants that will undertake the 16-point study, the Authority is developing a work plan.

"We foresee finding consultants within the next month or so and hope to complete all aspects of the implementation and operations plan by the end of September 2002," Johnson said.

The first item in the legislation authorizing the plan is a detailed description of the high-speed water transit system, including but not limited to all routes to be operated and terminals to be served during the 10-year period following funding of the authority. The description may include phasing of the routes to be served and the terminals to be built.

There is a real groundswell of support for expanded ferry transit in the North Bay. Benicia and Martinez along the Carquinez Strait are among the cities trying to establish future ferry service.

"We’re ready right now," said Otto Giuliani, Benicia’s city manager, "we could start ferry service from the downtown area tomorrow. We have the East Fifth Street Pier and are in the process of acquiring 26 acres of contiguous property that will let us park 1,500 cars, more than the parking capacity at the Vallejo ferry terminal."

Giuliani admits the conditions wouldn’t be top notch at first because of the need to construct a terminal facility, but the point is that Benicia is ready for ferry service and has been searching for a source of funds to acquire at least $10-million that is needed for even one high-speed vessel.

"Studies have shown that 20 percent of the passengers of the Vallejo ferry are from Benicia," Giuliani said, "and we know they would prefer not to drive to the Vallejo terminal when they could embark from home."

Giuliani expects some squabbling or a power struggle between the new Water Transit Authority and the all-powerful Metropolitan Transportation Commission, but said the alternative to cooperation is the gridlock on the area’s highways we now experience daily.

Pamela Belchamber, Vallejo’s transportation superintendent and overseer of that city’s highly successful ferry service, questions the need for a Benicia terminal, suggesting instead that Vallejo is a premier location on I-80 that is both practical and efficient.

Vallejo will add another high-speed vessel to its three-vessel fleet within the next two years and ridership continues to climb, reaching 800,000 in 2000, up from 675,000 in 1999 and 525,000 in 1998.

With a day pass for a fare to San Francisco and back at $14 and a monthly pass priced at $200, the fare box contributes 70 percent of the ferry’s $6.5 million annual operating budget.

Belchamber will be most interested in the WTA study’s route-by-route analysis and it’s ridership demand projections, as well as a discussion of sources of funding. She urges the WTA to consider other studies as well, including wake issues and boat technology.

"We’d like to see what ridership figures the study comes up with," said Bill Gegg, who is assistant to the Antioch city manager. "If there are high numbers from Antioch we could really develop the downtown because we already have the marina and parking."

Gegg feels ferry transit is critical to get commuters out of their cars and alleviate the gridlock on Highway 4, but the city has not undertaken any studies to gauge the number of potential riders.

Martinez is another of the cities on the first tier of ferry terminals. It is also the home of Nello Bianco, a transportation expert who was president of BART and served on the BART board for 25 years. Bianco was a member of the blue-ribbon committee formed by the Bay Area Council and Bay Area Economic Forum that studied water transit and led to SB 428.

"It’s obvious that extending BART is becoming too expensive," Bianco said, "with the price tag running from $100 million to $200 million per mile. The economics of water transit will prove far more feasible and we have the political will and the political support to get this done," Bianco said.