The commute in the Bay Area is among the nations most challenging. To ease congestion, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority is investing in a mode not available to most regions: ferries.
The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), and the City of Richmond teamed up to launch the Richmond Ferry Terminal. The new service offers four peak direction and two reverse commute trips between Richmond’s Ford Point and the San Francisco Ferry Building. The ferry service carries nearly 3 million passengers annually.
CCTA is contributing local transportation tax revenues to fund operations for at least 10 years. This kind of operations support is generally the hardest funding to raise. Most funding programs are designed for capital improvements, not operations.
WETA has developed an ambitious vision to expand the system to include 44 vessels, 16 terminals, and 12 routes. The resulting system would increase peak period capacity by 740 percent by 2035.