Put today’s crap weather out of your mind. You know a gorgeous Brooklyn summer is imminent when BillyBey, the East River ferry service, announces it’s expanding the carrying capacity of its boats on weekends from 149 passengers to 399. Last week, the city built a floating dock 100 yards south of the Dumbo port in order to accommodate larger crowds, and on Tuesday, the East River ferry will be adding a second boat to the service between rush hours.
From the New York Times:
The service, which costs $4 for a one-way trip between any two stops, drew more riders than expected from the start, after allowing people to ride for free on the initial weekends. In its first 10 months, it had 714,000 paying passengers, according to Ms. Quinn’s office.
“There was an expected decline in ridership over the winter, and we scaled back the hours during those months, but we had a solid base of commuters who stuck with us throughout,” said Paul Goodman, the chief executive of BillyBey.
Weekday ridership this spring has already returned to its pre-winter level, Mr. Goodman said. He added that he could not predict how popular the service will be on weekends with the bigger boats because his crews often turned away people for lack of space.
Yeah, we’re on some BOATS, and, they’re going sort of reasonably fast, and, it’s likely someone has a nautical-themed pashmina afghan.
In related news, the Times also reports that the boats will now have egg creams with U-bet chocolate syrup. There is justice in this world. Good night.