By Dev Halloran
Ferry Route 4 will resume service between the Water Street Ferry Terminal and Gull Point on Monday, Oct. 19, ending a closure that began June 1 and ran five weeks past its scheduled finish, Harbor City Transit said Thursday.
The first boat leaves Gull Point at 5:50 a.m. Monday, and rides are free all day. After that the fare is $3.25, unchanged from before the closure, and monthly passes will be accepted.
The route shut down so crews could replace the floating landing at Gull Point, which had been in the water since 1988, and rebuild the engines on both boats that serve it, the Cormorant and the Tern. The project cost $6.8 million, about $400,000 more than budgeted. Federal and state ferry grants covered $4.1 million, and the rest came from the agency’s capital budget.
Service was originally due back Sept. 8. The new steel float arrived five weeks late because its fabricator fell behind on orders, said Teresa Ilunga, Harbor City Transit’s director of ferry operations.
“We know what this summer cost people on the north shore,” Ilunga said. “The new landing is built to last forty years, and both engines have been rebuilt. We don’t expect to close this route again for a long time.”
Before the closure, Route 4 carried about 2,900 boardings on a typical weekday, according to agency figures. The replacement 4S shuttle bus, which loops around the bay over the Ridley Bridge, averaged about 1,100. The crossing takes 22 minutes by water. At rush hour the bus took about 50.
Walt Pruitt, 67, a retired machinist who lives two blocks from the Gull Point landing, said he had mostly stopped going downtown this summer. “The bus is fine if you’ve got all day,” he said. “I’ve got most of the day. Not all of it.”
Hana Sato, a pastry cook at a restaurant on Water Street, said her commute had nearly doubled. “I was leaving the house at 4:30 to make the first bus,” she said. “Monday I’m on the 5:50 boat, and I’m sitting by the window.”
The schedule
- Weekdays: boats every 30 minutes from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 7 p.m., hourly at other times. First departure 5:50 a.m. from Gull Point; last departure 10:20 p.m. from Water Street.
- Weekends: hourly from 8 a.m., with the last departure from Water Street at 10 p.m.
- Bikes: up to 24 per sailing, at no extra charge.
- The 4S shuttle bus makes its last runs Sunday.
Late boats for the night market
Starting Nov. 6, the agency will add an 11:40 p.m. departure from Water Street on Fridays and Saturdays. The late sailing is timed for the Harbor City Night Market, which moves that week from the Pier 9 lot to the old rail yard off Mill Road and will stay open until 11 p.m. The market’s organizers plan a free shuttle between the rail yard and the ferry terminal on market nights.
A different landing
Riders will find the new Gull Point landing wider and less steep. Its gangway meets federal accessibility standards for the first time, Ilunga said. On the old landing, a crew member had to help wheelchair users across at low tide.
The agency will also start posting live boat locations on its website and app on Monday, a feature riders had asked for before the closure. Ilunga said crews would be at both terminals during the morning rush on Monday to answer questions about the new schedule.