PROVIDENCE – Citing low ridership and high costs in running it, the temporary ferry operating from Bristol to Providence to help alleviate congestion on the Washington Bridge on Interstate 195 will end Jan. 19, the R.I. Department of Transportation announced Friday.
The alternative transportation service was implemented on Dec. 21 after state officials abruptly closed the eastbound side of the Washington Bridge heading into the capital city due to severe structural deficiencies with the bridge. The bridge’s sudden partial closure resulted in significant traffic congestion in multiple communities within Rhode Island’s East Bay and southeastern Massachusetts.
Local businesses also sought financial relief due to the how the bridge’s closure put a damper on
what could have been a prosperous holiday season.
Officials last month said the state has contracted with Rhode Island Fast Ferry, Block Island Ferry and Seastreak LLC to run the service until March 29, at a cost of $50,700 per day. The ferries are scheduled to run every 30 minutes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will do so until Jan. 19, RIDOT said. The estimated cost of the contract was approximately $5 million for the full period through the end of March, not including fuel costs and barge rentals.
The service was also implemented while the state installed a temporary bypass on the bridge, creating two eastbound traffic lanes on the bridge’s westbound side.
However, as of noon on Dec. 21,
just 35 riders had taken the free ferry service on its first day, and ridership had not grown much since. RIDOT said Friday the ferries have carried 3,285 passengers over 12 operating days as of Jan. 3, excluding Christmas and New Year’s Day. That amounted to about 274 riders per day on average.
When everything is all said and done, the state in total would have spent approximately $1.4 million for the ferry service based on 28 total service days at $50,7000 per day.
“It is clear from the data that only a very small percentage of commuters utilized this service and people are overwhelmingly choosing to utilize the bypass lanes,” RIDOT Director Peter Alviti Jr. said in a statement. “A service that is costing about $50,000 per day and attracting only [minimal] passengers per day is not economically sustainable.”
RIDOT spokesperson Charles St. Martin also told Providence Business News last month the agreements with the ferry companies allow the state to cancel at any time, provided that the state gave two weeks’ notice.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
