If you’re tired of roadway traffic along the Clearwater Memorial Causeway, maybe traveling by ferry could grab your interest.
Last week, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority agreed to a contract with the Clearwater Ferry to take control and expand service for its ferries between Clearwater, Clearwater Beach, and Dunedin.
As of now, the plans are for the ferries to operate Thursday to Sunday, starting Nov. 1.
The biggest change is ride frequency. The two ferry routes — which go from Clearwater to Clearwater Beach, and from Dunedin to Clearwater Beach — will operate 10 hours a day.
Passengers can also park for free at these lots in Clearwater and Dunedin.
Previously, the rides were only on-demand.
Darden Rice, chief planning and community affairs director for PSTA, says this plan has been in the works for a few years.
“A ferry is a great way to connect people from the mainland to the beaches without getting stuck in traffic, without having to waste a lot of time looking for a parking space and paying for parking,” Rice said. “It connects people easily and quickly.”
Rice says there isn’t a set price per ride yet, but she believes it will be around $5 a person. PSTA officials said in a meeting in late August that they had conversations about whether that was an appropriate amount and settled around that cost for now.
And she expects not only tourists to make up a good bulk of the traffic.
“It's about offering our tourists more options to get from the mainland to the beach, but it's also a very strong component for helping our residents and our employees get to places of work,” Rice said.
The $2.3 million contract will last for the next three years.
To get the service under PSTA control, the authority was able to get matching funds from the cities of Clearwater and Dunedin. A state grant is also helping offset some of the costs.
There are two optional years on the back end of the contract, but officials say that will only be possible if they’re able to find additional funding.
PSTA officials are asking that there’s consistent data-gathering to determine if it the ferry service is being used enough. Others asked if there can be a survey available for people who take the ferry to figure out why they’re traveling, whether as tourists or for other reasons.
Rice says the contract is long enough to get a good sense of the success of the ferry.
“It about changing a mindset, and I think once people try out the service and realize it's a different way of getting around, but you don't have to deal with paying for parking, spending a lot of time sitting in traffic, then people really start to see the benefit,” Rice said.
Rice also says PSTA will be releasing the requests for proposal for expansion of the Cross Bay Ferry, which connects downtown St. Petersburg to downtown Tampa.
“The Clearwater Ferry service and the Cross Bay Ferry are two very popular ferry services, and it's really the basis of what many believe will be the future of waterborne transit across Tampa Bay,” Rice said.
