Transit officials in Prince Willam County are turning to the professionals, issuing a request for information on how other jurisdictions operate passenger ferry service.
- The request for information will include questions about how to best maintain a fleet of boats, how to best collect passenger fares, and how to manage a passenger ferry system.
- OmniRide will issue the RFI to a handful of jurisdictions that operate passenger ferries, including New York City, which provides passenger ferry service between Manhattan and Staten islands.
“Based on trips to Seattle to and New York City I’ve made in the past month, if you’ve seen one ferry system, you’ve seen one ferry system. They’re all very different,” Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi told the OmniRide Commission at its meeting Thursday in Woodbridge.
Principi has long pushed for ferry service on the Potomac River as an alternative to commuting on Interstate 95.
- Ideally, passengers would park their dockside somewhere in Woodbridge and then board a ferry boat that would take them from to points in Maryland (National Harbor) or Washington, D.C. (Joint Base Anacostia Bolling and/or Southwest Waterfront).
OmniRide is positioning itself to be an operator of the ferry should the service ever materialize.
- OmniRide Director Dr. Bob Schnieder cautioned Commissioners that his agency is seeking only information about how other passenger ferry services operated and governed, and is not seeking bids from would-be ferry boat captains that could someday deliver the service.
