{"id":248319,"date":"2026-04-27T14:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/248319\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:49:07","slug":"tampa-st-pete-officials-meet-to-discuss-ferry-developments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/248319\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa, St. Pete officials meet to discuss ferry developments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Officials from both sides of the Bay are set to discuss the ferry service connecting downtowns Tampa and St. Petersburg on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Representatives from the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) and the city of Tampa are set to meet in Tampa to discuss the next step for ferry service returning.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>Representatives from the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) and the City of Tampa meeting in Tampa Monday about ferry service<br \/>\n<br \/>Formerly known as the Cross Bay Ferry, the name was changed after new owners took over last year<br \/>\n<br \/>The new Tampa Bay Ferry could be up and running by spring\/summer 2026<\/p>\n<p>Formerly known as the Cross Bay Ferry, the name was changed after new owners took over last year.<\/p>\n<p>In November,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/baynews9.com\/fl\/tampa\/news\/2025\/11\/06\/cities-of-st--pete---tampa-to-vote-on-new-cross-bay-ferry-\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">both the city of St. Pete and the city of Tampa voted<\/a>\u00a0on their parts of an agreement that would secure a new cross-bay ferry service, with each city giving its approval. The interlocal agreement included adding up to $350,000 a year in funding for the new ferry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement, PSTA would oversee ferry operations. Pinellas County\u2019s public transit provider is using part of a $4.8 million federal grant to buy at least one boat that would be used for the new ferry service.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/baynews9.com\/fl\/tampa\/news\/2025\/04\/10\/cross-bay-ferry-s-year-round-service-to-end-early\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cross Bay Ferry service was terminated in April<\/a>\u00a0after the previous operator, HMS Ferries, wanted to swap out the ferry with a slower boat. That boat would have taken twice as long to cross the bay, which violated their agreement with Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n<p>Hillsborough County commissioners then terminated the agreement with HMS Ferries in mid-April.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the new plan say it is set to be much more financially stable than the previous one.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Officials say the new Tampa Bay Ferry could be up and running by spring\/summer 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Officials from both sides of the Bay are set to discuss the ferry service connecting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[558,276,2287,115,596,275,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,1798],"class_list":["post-248319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-business","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}