Redwood
City-SF Ferry Route Tabbed in New Water Transit Plan
For more information on the regional plan,
logon to www.watertransit.org.
More than 2,200 daily ferry riders on new high
speed ferry boats between Redwood City to San Francisco are projected
under the new water transit plan announced in August 2002 by the San
Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority (WTA).
An ambitious plan to
launch the world's largest fleet of ferries would add seven routes on
San Francisco Bay and use state-of- the-art boats to reduce air
pollution. Redwood City to San Francisco is one of the projected new
routes.
“The projected riders
are fewer than our previous surveys have demonstrated, but nonetheless,
we are pleased to in the plan,” said Redwood City Port Commissioner Dick
Dodge, a member of the WTA’s Technical Advisory Committee. Redwood City
Council member Diane Howard is chair of the WTA Citizens Advisory
Committee. (CAC).
“While we are obvious
supporters of the regional plan, we will continue to work hard to bring
ferry service to Redwood City sooner than might occur under the regional
plan,” said Dodge.
The draft plan,
released by the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority, also
proposes expanding service on the existing Golden Gate, Alameda/Oakland,
Vallejo Baylink and Harbor Bay Island ferries.
If state lawmakers
approve the $662 million, 10-year plan -- and Bay Area voters and
elected officials agree to fund it through a combination of increased
bridge toll revenues, sales taxes and local contributions -- 44 ferries
could be plying the bay by 2015. That would make it the world's largest
ferry fleet, outpacing Sydney, which operates 32 boats.
Under the Water
Transit Authority plan, the authority would operate new routes between
San Francisco and Redwood City, Oyster Point in South San Francisco and
San Francisco, San Francisco and Treasure Island, and other East Bay
routes.
The regional ferry
system, Water Transit Authority officials say, would carry 12 million
passengers a year by 2025 -- triple the current number riding bay
ferries. The authority hopes to draw most of the new riders out of their
single-occupant cars.
The authority was
formed by the state Legislature in 1999 to study the need for expanded
ferry service on San Francisco Bay and to create a business plan for a
regional system. A blue-ribbon committee of business and political
leaders had earlier released a plan calling for development of "the
world's best" high-speed water transit system with a fleet of 70 boats.
The Water Transit
Authority must submit its plan to the Legislature by the end of the
year, after a series of public hearings in each of the nine Bay Area
counties. An environmental impact report is due in the spring, and the
Legislature is expected to vote on the plan next summer.
The Water Transit
Authority plan also outlines the authority's intent to use
less-polluting, and eventually pollution-free, vessels on the bay. All
ferries will exceed federal air quality standards that take effect in
2007 and will be 10 times cleaner than boats now on the bay, said Mary
Frances Cullane, the Water Transit Authority's marine engineering
manager.
