After abruptly shuttering last year, a ferry service will soon return to Tampa Bay. And this time, it\u2019ll run seven days a week.<\/p>\n
The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority unanimously approved April 29 the plan to buy and renovate two ferries using a $4.8 million federal grant. The revamped service will be operated by Hubbard\u2019s Marina, a longtime Madeira Beach business.<\/p>\n
The vote marks another step forward for the return of the ferry, which shut down last year amid regional drama.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ferry service is shaping up to be a win-win for everyone, on both sides of the bay,\u201d said Tampa City Council member Lynn Hurtak, who also serves on the board of Hillsborough\u2019s Transportation Planning Organization, in a news release April 27. \u201cWe\u2019ll be taking cars off the road, opening up new transportation options for locals and tourists, and activating two great cities in really exciting ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pinellas County\u2019s transit authority has long wanted to buy its own boat and expand the ferry service.<\/p>\n
Its Hillsborough counterpart in 2021 was awarded a nearly $5 million federal grant for that purpose, but it sat on the money for years. In June, it agreed to transfer the grant to the Pinellas transit authority.<\/p>\n
Late last year, the Pinellas transit authority\u2019s board approved the $2.5 million purchase of a used vessel in San Francisco. Hubbard\u2019s Marina has identified two other used vessels in Washington and Louisiana. The transit authority will pick one to buy and renovate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re committed to creating this service the right way, so it\u2019s sustainable for the long term,\u201d said Brad Miller, chief executive of the Pinellas County authority. \u201cThat\u2019s why everyone should be impressed by the effort of the Hubbard\u2019s Marina team, working with our staff, to maximize taxpayer dollars and get two boats with this one federal grant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transit authority said it is targeting $10 one-way tickets for the two new ferries, down from $12 on the former Cross-Bay Ferry. The service will run seven days per week, compared with five in previous years.<\/p>\n
The timeline is not yet clear. Alvin Burns, procurement director for the transit authority, said during a presentation in December that service could begin in mid-2026.<\/p>\n
On the Tampa side of the bay, the boats will dock at the east end of the downtown convention center.<\/p>\n
The location of a St. Petersburg dock has not yet been announced, though council members in November approved more than $336,700 for plans to build a permanent dock on the St. Pete Pier near the St. Petersburg Museum of History and the Dolphin Parking Lot.<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg council members also voted to commit $350,000 per year for five years toward the ferry. Tampa\u2019s council voted unanimously to contribute the same amount of money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After abruptly shuttering last year, a ferry service will soon return to Tampa Bay. And this time, it\u2019ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[596,12327,202,111840,204,203,199,201,200,610],"class_list":["post-257830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pinellas-suncoast-transit-authority","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-ferry","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-city-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257830","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=257830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}