The story
Founding and early years
In 1981, Arthur Edward Imperatore, Sr., a trucking magnate, purchased a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) length of the Weehawken, New Jersey waterfront, where the company is based, from the bankrupt Penn Central for $7.5 million, with the plan to redevelop the brownfield site along the west bank of the Hudson River waterfront and to restore ferry service to it.
In 1986, Imperatore established New York Waterway, with a route across the river between Weehawken Port Imperial and Pier 78 on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan.
Three years later, it began operation between Hoboken Terminal and Battery Park City.
During the course of the next decade numerous routes across the Hudson were added. NY Waterway briefly also operated a high-speed ferry from Staten Island to East 34th Street in 1998, but discontinued it due to low ridership. This marked the first time that NY Waterway discontinued a route.
Expansion and near bankruptcy
The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center destroyed the PATH terminal located there, greatly reducing cross-Hudson River passenger capacity. The company was well-positioned to take advantage of government investment in ferry service, receiving subsidies and generous agreements to docking at public facilities. NY Waterway service quickly expanded by adding new routes and increasing the frequency of crossings, heavily borrowing to fund the acquisition of additional vessels.
After PATH service was restored ridership significantly declined, the loss of passengers brought the company, unable to reduce its fixed costs, to brink of bankruptcy. By December 2004, there was deep concern that there would be a total shutdown of ferry service, disrupting the commutes of 30,000 daily riders. The Port Authority, as well as city and state agencies had already contracted the construction of new ferry terminals to be leased to private operators. The shutdown was averted when the new Billybey Ferry Company, which had never before operated ferry services, founded by Manhattan lawyer William B. Wachtel, agreed to take over almost half of NY Waterway's equipment and routes. The remaining service remained under control of the Port Imperial Ferry Corporation, the legal name of the original organization. Other ferry and sightseeing boat operators were displeased that the Port Authority approved the transfer without a transparent bidding process.
East River Ferry
In February 2011, NY Waterway was contracted to operate a route calling at slips in Brooklyn and Queens as well as the East River terminals, replacing an earlier peak-only service operated by New York Water Taxi. In June 2011, the NY Waterway-operated East River Ferry line started operations. The route was a 7-stop East River service that ran between East 34th Street and Pier 11, making one intermediate stop in Queens and four in Brooklyn. The fare was $4 per one-way ticket.
Subsidized by the City of New York, the service was originally intended for commuters, but after a few months became popular with weekend users and tourists. It was used by two to six times the number of passengers that the city predicted would ride the ferries. From June to November 2011, the ferry accommodated 2,862 riders on an average weekday, as opposed to a projection of 1,488 riders, and it had 4,500 riders on an average weekend, six times the city's projected ridership; in total, the ferry saw 350,000 riders in that period, over 250% of the initial ridership forecast of 134,000 riders. The route was merged into NYC Ferry on May 1, 2017, coming under the operation of Hornblower Cruises.
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In December 2016, the company announced it would reacquire Billybey Ferry and merge ownership back under a single roof.
2023 FTA grant
In 2023, the state of New Jersey received an $11.3 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration for ferries in the state. As a part of this grant, NY Waterway was given $7.298 million to convert four ferries from diesel to hybrid power.
September 11 attacks
NY Waterway has played a role in a number of rescue and emergency operations. In the immediate aftermath of collapse of the World Trade Center, the company played a major role in the maritime response following the September 11 attacks and the evacuation of passengers who otherwise would have been stranded because of the chaos in the regional transportation network. It is estimated that NY Waterway transported over 150,000 people. The Hudson Riverfront 9/11 Memorial is located near the NY Waterway terminal.
Northeast blackout of 2003
The ferry service also brought people across the river during Northeast Blackout of 2003 when service on New Jersey Transit and Port Authority Trans-Hudson trains could not operate. During the 2005 New York City transit strike it provided alternative transportation.
US Airways Flight 1549
In January 2009, the company was instrumental in the rescue of passengers of US Airways Flight 1549, which made an emergency landing on the Hudson River after both of its engines failed. The firm gained media attention both for its efforts to rescue passengers from airplane and for its hiring of 19-year-old Brittany Catanzaro as captain. Thanks in part to the successful efforts of Captains Vincent Lombardi and Catanzaro, together with their crews, all aboard were rescued.
Katherine G
On April 6, 2012, a NY Waterway ferry rescued the crew of the Katherine G, a tugboat that capsized near Liberty Island. The ferry's captain, Mohamed Gouda, had also commanded one of the ferries that participated in the flight 1549 rescue.
From Wikipedia’s article on NY Waterway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4