ITEM FILE PHOTO
BY THOMAS GRILLO
In his first public comments on the stranded Lynn to Boston ferry, Gov. Charlie Baker defended his administration’s decision not to fund it.
“At this point, it didn’t generate the ridership that people had hoped it would generate, and the price tag associated per rider is extraordinary,” Baker told The Item.
Baker made the remarks following his appearance at “The Future of Transportation: Paving a Path to Progress” in Boston on Thursday with Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack and other experts.
The governor said Lynn’s two-year demonstration project to launch the ferry on the state’s dime was an opportunity to examine whether the service made sense.
“We agreed to work with folks and support it for a couple of years to see what happens,” Baker said. “Our message to people is: let’s look at what happened over the short, two-year demo period… see what’s possible with respect to how it might be organized going forward and paid for. And let’s come back and have a conversation again, after people do some homework on that review. I personally think that’s a reasonable approach.”
Earlier this month, the Baker administration rejected Lynn’s request for about $700,000 in operating expenses for the ferry to sail for a third summer. As result, former ferry riders are back on the commuter rail, taking the bus to the Blue Line or driving to Boston.
Pollack said the comparisons of the Lynn ferry to the MBTA’s ferry services in other Bay State coastal communities is unfair.
“The MBTA ferries cost half as much, and riders cover 70 percent of the cost,” she told The Item. “The Lynn ferry costs twice as much per passenger and riders cover less than 10 percent. There has to be subsidy in Lynn, like there is subsidy at the T, but the question is: what level of subsidy?”
But Sen. Thomas McGee (D-Lynn) said he disagrees with Baker that Lynn failed to attract enough riders to prove the service makes economic sense.
“Even the provider of the ferry service anticipated many fewer riders,” he said. “For us to have 15,000 riders last year in a three month period was a message that viable ferry service from Lynn is legitimately a real opportunity for the North Shore to have an important transportation option.”
State Rep. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) said the state has already invested $8.5 million to build the pier and a parking lot and without the ferry it’s going to waste.
James Cowdell, executive director of the Economic Development & Industrial Corp. of Lynn, said he hopes that when the governor reviews the two-year pilot program that he don’t look at it as a Lynn ferry, rather as a regional ferry.
Cowdell insisted that none of the commuter ferries make money. But given time, ridership on the Lynn ferry would increase while the cost would drop. In 2014, the service attracted 13,136 riders and 15,230 last year.
“We are just starting out building ridership,” he said. “The best marketing is our passengers. You can’t compare us to Hingham. They have been in operation for a decade. If the ferry ran this summer, we would have exceeded 15,000 passengers.”
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said she was disappointed with the governor’s decision not to fund the ferry, but declined to criticize him.
“I can’t think of a time when I’ve ever reached out to state government to reverse a decision they’ve made,” she said. “That would be stepping over a boundary. If I want to have a say in how the state budget gets spent, maybe I should run for governor. I do understand his decision. It’s disappointing. People enjoyed the ferry and maybe the allocation will be available sometime in the future.”
On Tuesday, the City Council voted 7 to 0 to ask Baker to reconsider his decision not to fund the ferry service.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected]
