SF Bay Ferry to take over Treasure Island Ferry Service by 2026
In a sign of good news for Bay Area transit integration, the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), commonly branded as SF Bay Ferry, announced in July that they’ll take over service between Treasure Island and downtown San Francisco in 2026. The current operator, Prop SF, is privately funded through Treasure Island Community Development (TICD) and began service in 2022.
The change continues the trend of greater integration of Bay Area transportation. This change will make coordinating schedules, integrating fares between transit agencies, and improving the customer experience easier to achieve. SF Bay Ferry is the largest ferry operator in the Bay Area, with the bulk of its routes operating between the East Bay and San Francisco. WETA, has been consolidating Bay Area ferry services since 2011, assuming responsibility of the SF- Oakland and SF-Harbor Bay ferries from the city of Alameda, and the Vallejo Baylink service in 2012.
The announcement stems from a 2021 agreement between SF Bay Ferry and the Treasure Island Mobility Management Agency (TIMMA) to establish the new ferry route and study potential ridership, fare structures, and operating costs. At the Juy WETA Board of Directors meeting, TIMMA presented its findings which included:
Phasing service incrementally to match demand. Since ridership will increase with development on the island, service can be provided initially with one vessel, operating at least hourly. Service could ramp up to 15- minute frequencies at peak times at full buildout, pending available funding.
Providing service all day, not only during peak hours, on weekends as well as weekdays. Demand projections and peer systems showed that there is strong weekend demand.
Utilizing smaller vessels in the early years. More frequent service with smaller vessels and smaller crews performs better than service with larger vessels during initial years of service when demand is lower.
Seamless Bay Area has been an advocate for this connection, and wrote a letter in support of the study, identifying WETA as an ideal operator. The ride, which takes about 8 minutes from the Island’s terminal on its west shore to downtown San Francisco’s Ferry Building, is likely to be fully electric, as the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has mandated that short ferry routes (less than three nautical miles) must be zero-emission.
The current Prop SF service averages 2,642 monthly riders, up from 1,857 monthly riders in its first year of operation. The ferry will only become more important as Treasure Island continues its $6 billion redevelopment project, bringing more people and business to the island over the next decades. The private/public partnership aims to build 8,000 new homes for 20,000 new residents by the 2040s.
The inaugural 2022 ferry service to Treasure Island represented an important development in transit access to one of the biggest potential population growth centers in the Bay Area. WETA’s takeover will ensure that this important connection is integrated into the Bay Area public transportation network, helping streamline schedule coordination, fare integration, customer experience, and more.
More information of the study’s findings can be found here, under Agenda Item 11.
Matthew Murphy is an Oakland native living in Los Angeles. His avid interest in transit has strained all of his relationships beyond repair. You can follow him on Twitter at @mappymurphy.