Roosevelt Island Ferry Service May Be Available During Tram Shutdown and Normal Subway Service for this Weekend

You Tube video of New York Water Taxi leaving Fulton Landing underneath the Brooklyn Bridge

This will be the second weekend in a row of normal tram and subway service for Roosevelt Island. According to the MTA, there will be regular F train subway service to and from Roosevelt Island this weekend and no report from RIOC of any Tram disruptions either.

Can Roosevelt Islanders handle some more good transportation news? We learned earlier this week that ferry service for Roosevelt Island is inching closer to reality and is scheduled to start in 2010, though much work still needs to be done. There is also the possibility that Roosevelt Island ferry service may be available sooner, as early as 2009.

During the May 7 Roosevelt Island Residents Association meeting, City Council Member Jessica Lappin mentioned the possibility that ferry service for Roosevelt Island might be available by the time the Tram goes out of service next year for repairs and modernization. Lappin emphasized that this was not definite but merely a possibility. It seems as though neither the Mayor's office nor the Department of Transportation were aware until very recently that the Tram was going out of service for an extended period of time in 2009. Now that they do know, they are trying to see if it is possible to expedite Roosevelt Island ferry service. Let's hope that they succeed.

Council Member Lappin also confirmed that the Roosevelt Island ferry dock landing will be located near the Octagon because it has already received the necessary Army Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard approvals. She acknowledged that this is not the most convenient of all possible locations and left open the possibility of a second ferry landing for a future date.