STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Mayor Eric Adams visited the Staten Island Ferry to assess the severe service delays Wednesday evening and assure commuters that the city is hard at work to resolve the situation.
Hundreds of commuters stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the Whitehall Terminal in Lower Manhattan during rush hour, awaiting the ferry, which was reduced to hourly service due to a “significant share” of Staten Island Ferry workers not reporting to work on Wednesday.
“We are working constantly to make sure that Staten Islanders and all New Yorkers can travel seamlessly between Manhattan and Staten Island, and we will do everything we can to make that happen during this disruption,” Adams tweeted after his trip to Whitehall Terminal.
The mayor seemed confident in the city’s ability to “make sure people are able to get home.”
“It’s about adjusting. This is New York. Things happen everyday all day, but having the right team that can pivot and adjust based on the crisis that’s in front of us is how we must run a city as complicated as New York,” he said.
Adams announced earlier in the day that the Staten Island Ferry would operate with hourly service – on the hour from St. George Terminal and on the half-hour from Whitehall Terminal – beginning 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3.
The city hopes to return to full service on Thursday, Aug. 4, at 5 a.m., but could not guarantee that would be the case based on current staffing levels.
To offset potential overcrowding, Adams encouraged commuters to take NYC Ferry or express buses.
NYC Ferry is offering free trips between the Battery Maritime Building Slip 5 and the NYC Ferry St. George Terminal landing from 3:30 p.m. through 10 p.m. Wednesday night and will resume at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, operating approximately every 15 minutes.
The MTA is providing increased service on the SIM1/SIM1C (Hylan Blvd), SIM3/SIM3C (Port Richmond) and SIM4/SIM4C (Richmond Avenue) express buses that connect to Manhattan, as well as the S79, S53 and S93 local buses that connect to Brooklyn.
But it took many Staten Islanders a long time to make their rush hour commute home.
“I left work in Midtown East and got to Whitehall at 5:40 p.m., just missing the boat,” said Tatiana Mroczek, Miss Staten Island 2022. “The next boat was 7 p.m. and by that time, the terminal was so crowded, and it was a very frustrating rush hour for me, because I had a 7 p.m. appointment on the South Shore. Mayor Adams did arrive to address the commuters, but I hope the service improves, going forward.”
Meanwhile, frustrated Staten Islanders took to social media to express both dismay at the situation and support for the ferry workers.
“The borough that pays the most in taxes and have to go thru this crap,” Melo Rmz Tlatenchi commented on the Staten Island Advance/SILive Facebook page.
Sonia Rosa commented that the city did not give commuters enough notice.
“This was a madhouse today at 7 [p.m.] The alerts c[a]me way to[o] late,” she said.
“Maybe if the city would pay their workers what they are entitled to. No one wants to work hard for years with no raise. It would definitely be an incentive for more people applying for a good job,” Betty Esposito chimed in.
ONGOING FERRY SERVICE DISRUPTIONS
The Wednesday evening service reduction is not the first time the Department of Transportation (DOT) has adjusted the schedule due to a staff shortage.
During a two-week service reduction in July, DOT attributed the staff shortage to the uptick in COVID cases.
However, the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA) – the union that represents the captains, assistant captains, mates, chief engineers and marine engineers on the Staten Island Ferry – stated “COVID is not the issue,” and the true issue is continued understaffing.
Staten Island elected officials issued a joint statement on Wednesday referring to the service disruptions as having “become systemic.”
“The recent disruptions in Staten Island Ferry service are no longer isolated cases,” Borough President Vito Fossella; Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn); Assemblymembers Michael Reilly (R-South Shore), Michael Cusick (D-Mid Island), Charles Fall (D-North Shore) and Michael Tannousis (R-East Shore); Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-South Shore); City Councilmembers Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore) and David Carr (R-Mid Island) said.
The officials did not outright refer to a longstanding contract dispute between the city and MEBA, but touched on the need for negotiation and no longer allowing commuters to be caught in the crosshairs of the situation.
“This leads us to believe that the matter needs to be resolved at the negotiating table. The Staten Island Ferry is a vital transportation service for tens of thousands of Staten Island residents. We do not want our ferry commuters to continue to be ‘collateral damage’ in this process. It’s the commuters who are suffering from a situation over which they neither have power nor responsibility,” the statement said.
MEBA emphasized their point about understaffing again on Wednesday.
“Today’s work shortage on the Staten Island Ferry is completely due to severely overworked and understaffed crews. We have continued to operate service under the most stressful and painful of circumstances while our crew continues to feel the tremendous financial pain and workload stress of the pandemic and its aftermath. Our proud marine officers continue to go above and beyond, and remain committed to the safety and reliability of the Staten Island ferry service,” Roland Rexha, secretary treasurer for MEBA and former shop steward at the Staten Island Ferry, said in a statement.
The mayor said the city’s message to workers who did not clock-in on Wednesday is: “If you are not sick, New Yorkers need you to come to work.”
The union took issue with Adams implying that ferry workers participated in a “sick-out” due to a longstanding contract dispute between the city and the union.
“The union has no knowledge of any deliberate disruptions of service nor would we endorse any action to slow down this essential service for our beloved Staten Islanders. The only thing ‘sick’ is the Office of Labor Relation’s refusal to offer a contract that reflects the highly-skilled and essential work of the ferry officers and mariners,” Rexha said.