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County Sees Ferry Service In Our Future

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By RICH SHOPES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 27, 2007

Updated: 12/26/2007 11:55 pm

TAMPA - Hillsborough County officials are planning to ask for more than $1 million in federal funding to explore an idea that has been floated for years: ferry service between Tampa and St. Petersburg.

"We have a terrific bay and a lot of people commuting back and forth. Maybe there could be a water taxi between these locations," said Robert Campbell, director of the county's Transportation and Land Development Review Division.

Officials on Wednesday will ask county commissioners to apply for a $1.2 million grant to study the idea and, if the study shows a ferry service could succeed, create a pilot project. The federal money would have to be matched by a combination of state, local or private funds.

"We first have to find out if it's feasible," Campbell said.

Efforts in 2001 and the early '90s to establish water taxis foundered, but times have changed, officials say. More than 1,400 condo units are under construction downtown, and 11,000 are planned during the next 10 years. Roads aren't getting any less congested.

The county this year approved a $9,200 study to look at commuter ferry service. That effort mostly entailed reviewing previous studies and concluded a more in-depth analysis is needed to determine whether such a service would be financially viable, and whether the ridership would be primarily commuters or sightseers.

The new study would examine whether water taxis can succeed, their costs and how best to operate them, whether by a public or private company or some combination. The county's proposal for the grant money says the analysis would include everything from ridership to potential routes to what dock improvements would be needed.

The study could start in the spring and take up to a year, Campbell said.

Ferries have had mixed success in Florida. A high-speed ferry from Fort Myers to Key West was scrapped several years ago, relocated to Miami and then halted again.
Water taxis in Fort Lauderdale that reported carrying 750,000 passengers in 2004, at their peak, attracted less than half that last year after public subsidies were pulled and service scaled back, said Bob Bekoff, former president of Fort Lauderdale Water Taxi.

In Miami-Dade, officials put on hold a proposed ferry service after environmental problems surfaced.

This year, Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ruled that ferries must be mindful of manatee protection zones and operate at speeds of 8 mph. That would make the trip across Biscayne Bay, which has several manatee zones, impractical for commuters, said Jesus Guerra, assistant transportation manager at the Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization.

"We're trying to find another way. We might have to go out into the ocean, but the waves will make it difficult," Guerra said.

Manatee protection would be less of a worry in Tampa Bay, which has protection zones along the coast and downtown but not the bay.

Campbell said the study would have to identify potential ports. Ferries could run to Apollo Beach and Bradenton, in addition to downtown Tampa and St. Petersburg. The types of vessels, such as hovercraft, would also have to be considered.

The biggest considerations are related to cost and time, said Bekoff, who's now a water transportation consultant in Plantation.

If the service is too costly for daily riders and too slow, people will stick to their cars. The proximity of parking to the departure point and the cost to park also must be weighed.

"One key to it is if it's gong to be transit ... you have to be able to have a transit-oriented rate, and that rate has to be subsidized," he said. "Tourism can sustain the business during the day."

County Commissioner Mark Sharpe said he supports the notion of studying whether water taxis would be a viable form of mass transit.

"Everything must be on the table if we are going to develop a multi-modal transportation system," Sharpe said.

John Moors, administrator at the Tampa Convention Center, said although the water taxis didn't take off before, they might succeed now.

"As we continue to develop downtown, certainly with the Riverwalk project and the growth of the downtown residential community, it certainly creates an opportunity," he said.

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes

@tampatrib.com.

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