STUYVESANT TOWN — East-side residents will have a chance on Thursday to ask city officials about plans for a new ferry landing set to open in 2018 at Stuyvesant Cove Park, part of a citywide expansion of ferry service.
The Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Tenants’ Association will hold a meeting with the New York Economic Development Corporation, which is overseeing a planned ferry route on the East River waterfront from East 34th Street to Wall Street/Pier 11.
The meeting will take place on Thursday at the VA Medical Center atrium conference room, 423 E. 23rd St., at 6:30 p.m.
The new East River route would go from 34th Street to Wall Street, picking up passengers near 20th Street at Stuyvesant Cove Park and at a planned landing at Grand Street on the Lower East Side, according to proposals for the project.
The new citywide ferry network is set to include five new routes, along with expanded service along the existing East River Ferry route. The plan will require the construction of 10 new ferry landings to serve riders in the neighborhoods along the routes.
Three of the new routes are scheduled to open in 2017, with another two — including the Manhattan East River route — set to open in 2018.
The existing ferry route on the East River brings riders between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and to points along the Brooklyn waterfront, but there is currently no dedicated north/south route on the Manhattan waterfront.
Each ferry ride on the new routes is slated to cost $2.75, the same as a subway swipe, and the city estimates that the entire network could carry passengers on as many as 4.6 million trips per year once completed.
The EDC is currently in the process of selecting a ferry operator for the citywide service, having put out a request for proposals in March, and expects to make a decision within the next two months, a spokesman said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio last February announced $55 million in capital funding to get the new service up and running, with much of the cost set to go to building the 10 new docks and landing areas called for in the expansion plan.
The 20th Street landing would be part of a larger revitalization of the Stuyvesant Cove Park waterfront, which could include a new kayak launch and a renovated skyport, or seaplane base, according to an EDC spokesman.The other expected docks to roll out in the new plan will stop in Soundview in The Bronx, Upper East Side, Roosevelt Island, Astoria and Bay Ridge.
