New York’s citywide ferry service — the city’s first in nearly a century — is still a year away from launching. But the city’s Economic Development Corporation and ferry operator Hornblower New York this week stood up the project website, CityWideFerry.NYC, to start attracting riders – and recruit future employees, advertisers and business partners to the new waterway commuting system.
Opening with an airborne video loop view of the East River, Manhattan and Roosevelt Island in late afternoon light, the pages take viewers through an introduction to the system and the new routes that will begin operation in 2017-2018.
As construction begins on new ferry landings, the website and its associated Facebook and Twitter pages will carry project updates – and promises video streaming of boat construction, when Hornblower gets builders started on an 18-boat fleet of 149-passenger high speed catamarans the company says it will build for the system.
There is a summary of publicly subsidized fares -- $2.75 one way, plus $1 to stow a bicycle – and a page for future job listings, which Hornblower says will ultimately require 150 new positions to its New York operation now numbering around 450 people.
Other pages invite prospective advertisers and business partners to submit their ontact information. Viewers are invited to take a two-minute survey, with an offer of five annual free passes for 2017 in a drawing.
"Our hundreds of miles of prime waterfront are a place for New Yorkers to work, live and play and it'll be easier than ever to do all three once Citywide Ferry launches next year," Cameron Clark, vice president of Hornblower New York, said in announcing the website launch.
