STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- While more and more New Yorkers are returning to work each day, daily ridership on the Staten Island Ferry remains significantly below where it had been prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
At the start of the pandemic in late-March, when strict stay-at-home orders where in place for all non-essential workers, the Staten Island Ferry began running on a vastly reduced service schedule, providing hourly trips at a time when ridership on the boats was down nearly 90%.
Over the following months, the city has been ramping service back up, first increasing rush-hour frequencies to every 30 minutes in late May, then moving to every 20 minutes in early June, before finally restoring full rush-hour service in early July.
However, despite service returning to pre-pandemic levels in relatively short order, ridership has been much slower to catch up.
During the month of April, when ridership fell to its lowest point, an average of just 6,012 passengers rode the Staten Island Ferry each day, a staggering 91.7% decrease from the 72,273 average daily riders in April 2019.
Slowly Creeping Back Up
In the months to follow, ridership began slowly creeping back up, but has remained far below where it once was, according to recent data.
In May, the average number of daily ferry riders increased to 8,724, but was still 88.2% lower than the 74,101 average daily riders in May 2019.
In June, daily ferry ridership increased to an average of 10,849 passengers, which was still 84.3% lower than the 69,194 average daily riders in June 2019.
In July, ridership continued to rebound, jumping to 17,766 average daily passengers, but still representing a 71.8% decrease from the 63,023 average daily riders in July 2019.
Now, with summer coming to a close, ridership on the Staten Island Ferry continues its gradual return to normalcy, with recent data showing that while more New Yorkers are heading back to work, it’s still going to be a long time before the boats are packed to capacity.
The Staten Island Advance/SILive.com analyzed publicly available Staten Island Ferry ridership data to compare ridership during the last full work week of August during the past two years.
According to the data, overall daily ridership and ridership during the morning and evening rush hours were still down approximately 66% in August 2020 compared to August 2019.
Daily Ridership
From Monday, Aug. 24, 2020, through Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, the Staten Island Ferry served an average of 22,008 daily passengers.
That represents a 66.2% decrease from the 65,064 average daily passengers served from Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, through Friday, Aug. 30, 2019.
During the last week of August, the St. George Ferry Terminal served an average of 10,574 passengers per day in 2020, 68.3% less than the 33,379 daily passengers handled during 2019.
The Whitehall Ferry Terminal served 11,434 average daily passengers during the last week of August in 2020, down 63.9% from the 31,686 daily passengers in 2019.
Morning Rush Hour
During the morning rush hour, from 6 to 9 a.m., the Staten Island Ferry served an average of 4,518 passengers during the last week of August 2020.
That represents a 66.7% decrease from the 13,553 average rush-hour passengers handled during the last week of August 2019.
Average morning rush-hour ridership from the St. George Ferry Terminal was down 70.8%, from 11,824 passengers in 2019 to 3,449 passengers in 2020, while average morning rush-hour ridership from the Whitehall Ferry Terminal was down 38.2%, from 1,729 passengers in 2019 to 1,069 passengers in 2020.
Evening Rush Hour
During the evening rush hour, from 4 to 7 p.m., the Staten Island Ferry served an average of 6,109 passengers during the last week of August 2020.
That represents a 65.1% decrease from the 17,486 average rush hour passengers handled during the last week of August 2019.
Average evening rush-hour ridership from the St. George Ferry Terminal was down 68.3%, from 5,101 passengers in 2019 to 1,617 passengers in 2020, while average evening rush-hour ridership from the Whitehall Ferry Terminal was down 63.7%, from 12,385 passengers in 2019 to 4,492 passengers in 2020.
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©2020 Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
Visit Staten Island Advance, N.Y. at www.silive.com
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