Maloney asks about ferry system's operational and financial health
Wong calls the system healthy; subsidy is down from $13 to under $9; fare policy is equitable; he is proud of improvements.
Since the majority of the bills that we're discussing today are focused on the ferry system, we'll ask some questions focused on that.
How would you characterize the current state of the ferry system, the operational, financial, and infrastructure challenges that you're facing right now?
Thank you for the question and the opportunity to testify.
I would consider our financials and the state of the system very healthy.
I think that, you know, for those with longer memories, we did have times when the cost of NYC ferry had gotten expensive, and we've done a lot of work over the last several years to affect change here.
We've gone from a subsidy per rider of nearly $13 per rider to under $9.
It's more than 30% decrease despite the intense inflationary pressures that we're facing around the country.
We've done things like we procure our contracts so that we have a really effective instrument to control the system that we have and to ensure that it's delivering a safe and efficient system for our riders.
We've made changes to our fare policy, which are equitable.
They're really supporting the growth of our system so that we can allow the regular riders to have access to the
same fare as a subway or a bus, introduced and expanded our discount program, and at the same time allowed people who are willing to pay a little bit more to do just that.
So I think that over the last several years, we've focused a lot on fixing and making sure that the system
itself is working well and I'm really proud of where we are.