TAMPA, Fla. – With talk of the Cross Bay ferry service between Tampa and St. Petersburg downtowns making a comeback, plans are also progressing on a proposed commuter ferry project between south Hillsborough County and MacDill.
Ed Turanchik, a longtime local transit advocate and attorney who represents the ferry operator HMS Ferries, says while one isn't contingent on the other, they go hand in hand.
“We’re Tampa Bay and we have this incredible body of water sitting out there that would provide congestion-proof transit if we just used it,” Turanchik said. “It’s almost like a ‘duh’ moment.”
Cross Bay recreational ferry
An interlocal agreement on funding must be met between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, and the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg in order for the Cross Bay ferry service to return this fall.
The quick ride between downtown St. Petersburg and downtown Tampa became popular during a six-month trial that ended in the spring of 2017.
Tampa city council on Thursday agreed to commit $150,000 toward the effort to bring back the ferry. The vote followed a recommendation from Mayor Bob Buckhorn who had previously been one of the project's biggest skeptics.
Hillsborough County has also agreed to fund its portion, as has St. Petersburg. County commissioners in Pinellas have not yet officially made a determination.
Other procedural votes involving contracts and other aspects of the project must still happen before the return is a done deal.
►RELATED: Does the Cross Bay ferry have a future?
MacDill commuter ferry
At the same time, Hillsborough County commissioners last month approved a plan to create a timetable, budget schedule and narrowed a list of potential terminal sites for a proposed commuter ferry line between south Hillsborough County and MacDill Air Force Base.
“That’s now on the fast track to getting done,” Turanchik said. “There’s 10,000 people who work at MacDill, who live in south county, who take an hour to get around the top of the bay when they could take 13 minutes across it.”
Turanchik says to get the most bang for the buck, the same boats and resources shuttling passengers between the downtowns on evenings and weekends on the Cross Bay can be used to shuttle commuters between south county and MacDill on weekdays.
“The Cross Bay ferry is spring training for permanent service because it is demonstrating a very strong demand and market for ferry service between downtown Tampa and downtown St. Petersburg, which is the opposite side of the coin for the MacDill commuter,” he said.
“So those ferry boats and crews just flip over and provide inner-city weekend even evening service.”
A commuter ferry could service passengers between 6-9:00 in the morning and 4-6:00 in the evenings, Turanchik said.
HMS Ferries has said a commuter line would be operated without state or local government subsidies, according to Turanchik.
The biggest hurdle in establishing a commuter service will be determining a terminal site in south county, according to Turanchik, who says they are looking somewhere between Riverview and Apollo Beach.
Williams Park, along the Alafia River in Gibsonton, could be a strong contender, he said. Other potential sites include Schultz Preserve, Mosaic-owned property in Port Redwing in Port Tampa Bay and TECO-owned land near the Big Bend power plant.
Down the line, commuter service between downtown St. Petersburg and Westshore and between south Hillsborough County and downtown Tampa could also become a reality, according to Turanchik.
Turanchik says the goal is to have a terminal site chosen for the MacDill line by January 2019, with service potentially starting within three years.
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