Phil Wong questions subsidies and tourist pricing

Okay, thank you.

My second question is regarding the subsidies.

In the statement here, you said that in fiscal FY26,

The subsidy per ride is $8.79.

So we have a situation here that the more...

services we expand, the more subsidies the city has to provide.

So my question to you is that obviously you want to close or lower this subsidy.

And to do that, you have to look at the cost per ride.

I mean, the cost per ride, say, from Lower Manhattan to Long Island City is very different from Lower Manhattan to, say, to the Far Rockaways.

But right now you have a fixed cost per ride.

Is that right?

Yeah, cost the same.

What we report out and talk about is that $8.79 is a system-wide average.

But yes, there are different cost functions, as you have pointed out.

Going to some place that is further away does take more fuel, it takes more time.

So there are higher costs associated with places that are further from the core.

Have you considered...

Pricing them accordingly because at the rate these ferries expand, you have to start looking at cost savings.

And one way to do that is look at the prices you're charging, or perhaps you can offer other packages.

I know tourists that are taking the ferry, they're rather than paying so much more

to Circle Line or to Liberty Cruises, they'll rather take NYC Ferry because they can, oh, see the Statue of Liberty, Verrazano Bridge, you know.

So this is something I think you should look into, sell packages to tourists and price accordingly per trip.

rather than a flat fee because I see that you do not support these bills that's introduced by the city council because of the division study.

But clearly cost is a big issue because you have capital costs and you have

construction costs, you know, and other costs related on expanding the ferry services.

So this is something, are you looking into that, doing some price changes per trip or selling packages?

Yeah, no, thank you for the question.

I guess as a starting point, as a matter of policy, not unlike the subway, we do charge the same price across the city.

So we don't want to penalize people who live further away with a higher price point.

But what we do have is a fare structure that does allow us to do exactly what you're talking about, which is to have lower prices for people who are frequent riders and higher prices for someone who's riding just for fun.

If you are just riding and you only need to ride once, it might behoove you to pay the $5, the higher fare, which we just increased yesterday, actually, from $4.50 to $5.

So it's a higher price if you're riding once in a while and you don't want the package.

Finally, we also have implemented, which is relatively new and targeted more towards tourists, is the $15 two-day pass.

So we invite people who are visiting to come use NYC Ferry and pay $15 for an unlimited number of rides over the course of two days.

We see that as a way to really target tourists.

We are actually advertising and selling those through some of the online vendors as well to get the word out so that we could get people who are willing to pay more onto the system.

So as a tourist, where do they get these two-day passes?

You can buy them through the app at ticket vending machines or more recently through two.

They're either on or they're going to be available on Viator and Get Your Guide.

Thank you.