De Blasio’s Fanciful Ferries and Ludicrous Light Rail

When our mayor, Bill de Blasio, came into office, he promised a wave of new transit investment as part of his populist “Tale of Two Cities” campaign. Transit advocates drooled with delight as he vowed to construct long-stalled projects such as the second phase of the Second Ave Subway, the Utica Ave and Nostrand Ave Subway Extensions, and many others. His administration has done just the opposite. For all his populist posturing and pro-working class rhetoric, de Blasio seems to be unable to grasp what makes a good piece of transit and what makes a bad one. His faulty conceptions are demonstrated with his two signature transit initiatives–the Brooklyn-Queens street car and the new ferry system, both of which are giant wastes of public funds and resources and which serve no worthwhile transit need.

A Redundant Light Rail Line

Over two years ago de Blasio proposed the BQX, a light rail system running along the streets parallel to the East River, linking the coastal neighborhoods of Queens and Brooklyn. The Mayor’s signature pitch was that the new line would pay for itself, despite the 2.5 billion price tag, using a system called value capture, in which the increased property value for areas surrounding the line would be taxed. This same system of revenue collection was used successfully to pay for the 7 extension.

The BQX has several fatal problems. The first of these is that it is simply not needed. For the majority of its length the BQX shadows the G train, a subway line that is already seriously undersubscribed. Building the crosstown streetcar would transform one underused service into two practically abandoned ones. The only neighborhood along the whole route that is not served by the subway is Red Hook. A smarter move from the mayor would be building a truncated light rail line to serve Red Hook only, while investing the rest of the money in improving the G train (a proposal for which you can see here).

Another flaw is the problem of transfers. The BQX will serve primarily as a circulator, orthogonal to the rest of the lines in the system, allowing transfers from one train to another (the same job that the G train is supposed to do). Getting to major job centers in Manhattan will require a paid transfer. The MTA is currently a state-owned agency, an uncomfortable arrangement which emerged out of the fiscal chaos of the 1970s when the city was near bankruptcy. The BQX will be city-owned and will therefore not be Metrocard-compatible. This means that anyone on the BQX who wishes to escape the BQX have to pay an additional $2.75 for a transfer to a bus or the Subway. This double fare will drive much of the line’s ridership base back to the G train, which does not require an additional swipe if you want to go to jobs in Manhattan or residences further out in the Boroughs.

The final nail in the coffin was revealed just last month. In February, a memo from the BQX’s design team was sent to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, which calculated that the Mayor’s economic projections were fanciful and that the streetcar line would not pay for itself. The internal memo was leaked to the public in April, and while the final economic report will not be complete until the end of this year, it seems more and more likely that the BQX is financially untenable.

A Wasteful Ferry System

The Ferry System, premiered last week, has all the flaws of the BQX and more. Similar to the streetcar, the $365 million project will serve a practically non-existent transit need. The New York Economic Development Corporation estimates that the ferries will serve a grand total of 12,500 people per day, compared to 5.6 million subway riders, a difference of 448 to 1. Like the BQX the ferries will have trouble interfacing with the rest of New York’s transit network, as the ferries are city-owned and won’t use the Metrocard, making transfers to the subway or bus system very expensive.

And those transfers will be necessary. The vast majority of New York’s jobs, residences and subway stops are far from the water, so if you are taking the ferry and want to get anywhere, a $2.75 transfer will be required. This compounds with the fact that most transit riders are transfer adverse, the implication of which is that people prefer to stay on the same train or bus, even if that means a longer commute. Using the ferries will require several transfers. Someone living in the Rockaways will be required to take a bus to the ferry, the ferry to Manhattan, walk 10 minutes to the nearest subway stop and finally take a subway train to work. That’s three transfers and a lot of walking, which would cost an extra $2.75 than a subway trip alone. And since the buses and subway are state-owned and the ferries city-owned, the schedules for routing the two networks will not be coordinated, making transfers all the more complex.

The new ferries will also be very inefficient, especially compared to the subway. Each one of the new boats will be able to carry a grand total of 150 passengers, less than the number of people that can fit in a single subway car (roughly 200), let alone an entire train. The capacity of the ferries is actually rivaled by the capacity of a single articulating bus (the double buses with the bendy bit in the middle) which can also fit 150 people, explaining why only 12,500 people per day will use the system (at the cost of greater pollution and noise that ferries give as compared to hybrid buses and electric trains).

And finally, like the BQX, the ferry network makes no financial sense. All forms of transit (as well as driving, actually especially driving) are subsidized by the federal, state or city government. This is a controversial subject, with extensive argumentation supporting both sides, with the pro-subsidy crowd arguing that subsidized transit is for the public good and the anti-subsidy crowd arguing that subsidies create economically inefficient behaviors (like massive suburban sprawl due to car subsidies).

The ferries are subsidized entirely out of proportion to their usefulness. A single subway ride is subsidized to the tune of 56 cents (as of 2015). On the other hand, some ferry services will receive subsidies of up to $30 per ride. That number is simply outrageous. To put this in perspective, $30 could purchase nearly 11 subway rides and subsidize 60 of them. While some ferry routes will have a lower subsidy per ride, there will not be a single ferry route in the whole system that pays for the majority of its own costs, unlike the subway and bus network. Worse still, while the subway and buses serve many poor neighborhoods whose residents may be in need of subsidization, the ferries will almost universally serve low density, more well-off neighborhoods. So not only are the subsidies outrageous, they will mostly find their way into the pockets of people who don’t need them.

Fancy, but not fulfilling

So what would be de Blasio’s impetus for attempting to implement such flawed, expensive and useless transit projects? Cynical politicking. De Blasio is trying to overcome his reputation as ineffectual and bumbling by investing in expensive projects and seemingly grand gestures. The subway and buses are out of his hands, controlled by the state and his political rival Governor Andrew Cuomo. By building totally new transit systems, de Blasio is able to claim he is a “can do” mayor and new hardware always looks better in photo ops than more bus lanes or maintenance improvements for the subway, things that would actually help improve New Yorker’s commutes. The ferries and the BQX will also make nice listings in the amenities section of the new buildings of De Blasio’s developer friends in Queens and Brooklyn.

In short, practically no one will benefit from either the BQX, save for wealthy people, developers and people who own property in the cost enclaves of Brooklyn or Queens. The daily commute for 99% of working New Yorkers (make that 99.77%) will get no easier and the taxpayer will see his or her pockets a little lighter.