MBTA’s Post

Transcript

[Music] My name is David Perry. I'm the Director��of Ferry Operations. Ferry Operations is a division��within the Railroad Operations department and��as the Director of Ferry Operations I'm��responsible for overseeing the contract with��our service provider Boston Harbor City Cruises.�� Ferry operations is a small part of the T in��terms of ridership but we have a very loyal following. It is a contracted service just like�� the Commuter Rail so Keolis is the provider for Commuter Rail, Boston Harbor City Cruises is our current provider for the Ferry services. So we oversee the operation of Boston Harbor City Cruises performing all of the service for ferries. So as a part of railroad operations, I'm��the only person full-time dedicated to running the ferry operation. One of the things that we're able to take advantage of some of the mechanical staff that we have in Railroad Operations to provide��some oversight and some assistance on technical��matters with the ferries. We represent uh only a��little under 1% of the ridership of the MBTA so we're a small little piece of the MBTA. However, that still represents about 1.3 million trips in calendar year 2023 so we're still carrying�� a pretty good amount of people In the summer, we have uh almost 7,000 daily riders on a weekday and the interesting thing about ferry operations��is that our weekend ridership doesn't dip down��that far. Our weekend ridership in the summer��is over 5,000 so it's a good it's a good balance�� of commuters and also day trippers and tourists using the the various services that��we have. The other thing that I'll note about��ferry operations is we offer a pretty good��variety of services. We offer service um in the��outer harbor to places like Lynn, Hingham, Hull,�� Quincy, and Winthrop and then we also offer��frequent service in the inner harbor to places��like East Boston and Charlestown Some of those��services are seasonal and some of them are year-round. We've been operating year-round for many��many years uh to Hingham and Hull and that's��been the foundational cornerstone of ferry operations. On any weekday, we operate about��13 boats. The interesting thing about the way�� that we run the service is that that's a mix��of ferries that we own, ferries that we lease, and also ferries that are provided by our service��provider. Boston Harbor City Cruises provides��some very large boats to carry the big surge of��commuters that we have in the morning and then��in the evening. When they're not needed for MBTA��ferry service they do other things like whale watches and excursions. So it's a win-win win in��terms of there's not a whole lot of of need for��a whale watch at 6:30 in the morning but we need��a big boat to carry people in and there's no need��to carry a big boat full of commuters at noon��time but that's the prime time for a whale watch. So it is a good synergy with our service provider��that we're able to take advantage of the big boats. There's opportunities to grow��the service both in geography and in��frequency. I'm very excited about the��opportunities that we have to improve��the service and offer more service for��our riders uh in the in the coming years.