This time last month the Harbor Bay Ferry was looking like it had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. My, what a difference a little promotion makes. Ridership on the Tuesday, June 21 5:30 run amounted to 125 passengers, more than double the norm. The boost is the result of a promotional mailing undertaken by the Water Transit Agency.
WTA promotion efforts prompt surge in ridership
By Bobby Winston, Editor
Published: July, 2005
This time last month the Harbor Bay Ferry was looking like it had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. My, what a difference a little promotion makes.
Ridership on the Tuesday, June 21 5:30 run amounted to 125 passengers, more than double the norm. The boost is the result of a promotional mailing undertaken by the Water Transit Agency.
The WTA initiative, the first marketing effort undertaken on behalf of the Harbor Bay ferry in memory, was prompted by angry public reaction to proposals to cut back or even eliminate the service. Alameda/Oakland Ferry Service management cited unacceptably low levels of "farebox recovery" as the reason why this would be necessary.
"Farebox recovery" is bureaucratic jargon for the total paid by transit users themselves; public subsidies must cover the difference between what riders pay and the actual, and unsurprisingly far greater, cost.
Last month, Bay Crossings reported that the "standards" currently used to compare farebox recovery rates of BART, bus systems and ferry lines are skewed, in order to present ferry service in an unfavorable light. Why this is so, and who is responsible, is unclear.
Best estimates are that all ferry services (not just Harbor Bay) far outperform the farebox recovery efficiency of other transit modes. The reasons have to do with the absence of capital costs, (the Bay already exists and does not have to be built, or re-built, as in the case of the BART tube) and the large number of passengers that can be carried aboard ferries.
WTA plans further promotional efforts in support of the Harbor Bay service and continues in its talks with the City of Alameda and Harbor Bay Maritime, the current operators of the service, to take over management of the service outright, perhaps as soon as the end of calendar year 2005.
