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<\/p>\nA $4.8 million federal grant is helping give the two boats PSTA purchased a major makeover.<\/p>\n
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) hosted a tour of its two new vessels, Bay Breeze and Bay Clipper, that will eventually connect downtown St. Petersburg and Tampa.<\/p>\n
The two ferries are being refurbished by Tarpon Marine Services. A $4.8 million federal grant is helping give the two boats PSTA purchased a major makeover.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere will be a large focus on the Bay Breeze on the interior with reupholstering seats, redoing the carpet with an epoxy type flooring, redoing the exterior decks and mechanical upgrades,\u201d Justin Russell with Tarpon Marine Services said.<\/p>\n
Once refurbishment is complete, these ferries will carry up to 250 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is definitely a project that’s not normal for our area. So, it gives me a chance to reach out to a lot of the vendors that I’ve used in the past. It’s really going to highlight how strong of a maritime background this community has,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n
The previous Cross Bay ferry came from Boston and operated only during the winter months for seven years. The service ended in April of last year after the ferry operator proposed a smaller, slower vessel, but PSTA said residents and tourists can soon expect a more sustainable option.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got the boats from the West Coast of the United States and moved them here. This will be something for people to rely on for the long haul,\u201d Brad Miller, PSTA Chief Executive Officer, said.<\/p>\n
PSTA hopes to have the service run seven days a week. It says the initial fare will be $10, five for seniors and people with disabilities and free for kids under eight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am hopeful that we will have it up and running by the end of this year,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
PSTA was recently awarded another federal grant for $16.5 million to purchase a new ferry for Tampa Bay ferry services. They said it will take at least two years to get a third boat added to their fleet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A $4.8 million federal grant is helping give the two boats PSTA purchased a major makeover. ST. PETERSBURG,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-394559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394559","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=394559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}