The state begins operating the Algiers/Canal Street ferry fewer hours beginning Monday, July 1. Watch video
Ed Moise knows quite well just how much Algiers Point residents and businesses rely on the ferry that links the West Bank community to the foot of Canal Street. When the Coast Guard banned all vessel traffic on the Mississippi River for several days in July 2008, after almost 300,000 gallons of oil leaked from a barge that collided with a ship just upstream from the Crescent City Connection, Moise saw business plunge 65 percent at his restaurant in Algiers Point, Aunt Leni's Cafe.
So when the state announced the ferry will be operating at reduced hours beginning Monday, Moise said he knew another of his businesses, Bed and Breakfast on the Point, could take a hit. He estimates that more than 75 percent of his customers use the ferry to visit the French Quarter.
"It's a huge drawing card for us, because you can walk three blocks and catch a ferry," Moise said. "We need to figure out a way to get this fixed as quickly as possible."
From business owners to tour guides and service industry workers, Algiers Point residents are bracing for Monday, when the ferry that many see as a lifeline to their livelihoods cuts its operating hours. It's part of a wider reduction in ferry services in Louisiana.
Citing a lack of money, the state has eliminated the Gretna-Canal Street ferry. It was set to do the same to the Edgard-Reserve ferry in St. John the Baptist Parish until an 11th-hour deal was reached temporarily extending that operation. The Algiers-Chalmette ferry schedule, will not change, the state has said.
The two Algiers ferries are free for pedestrians. They charge vehicles $1 to cross to the east bank and are free in the opposite direction.
The Algiers-Canal Street ferry has been operating more than 18 hours daily. But starting Monday, the ferry -- carrying only pedestrians -- will run only from 7:15 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and until 8:15 p.m. on Fridays. The weekend schedules will be even shorter: from 10:45 a.m. to 8:15 p.m. on Saturdays, and until 6:15 p.m. on Sundays.
Algiers Point resident Annette Watt, who gives walking tours in the French Quarter, expects to lose about one third of her income. Her tours end about 10 p.m..
And relying on "a woefully inadequate" public bus that crosses the river means she wouldn't get back home to Algiers Point until about 12:30 a.m. The buses at that time of night are jampacked, she said.
"What am I supposed to do: Hang out in a bar for two hours and spend the money I just earned?" Watt said. "I simply cannot and will not do that."
By some accounts, the reduced schedule is better than nothing. For months, the ferry's future beyond Sunday was in question since the subsidies that bridge tolls provided were cut off Jan. 1. For a ferry that cost about $4 million annually to operate, the Legislature provided $1.5 million for the Department of Transportation and Development to keepit running, and the Regional Planning Commission has thrown in another $300,000. The infusions were meant to be an interim solution and are not enough to keep the ferry running at the old 18-hour-per-day schedule, officials said.
Eyes now are on the Regional Transit Authority, which oversees the public bus and streetcar system in New Orleans and buses in Kenner. Under a law passed this year, the authority is authorized to enter into an agreement with the state to take over the Canal Street and Chalmette ferry operations. Its board of commissioners released a statement Tuesday, acknowledging that talks among the RTA, its contractor Veolia Transportation and the state are under way. The board also expressed hope that ferry services continue.
"But to put it simply, ferry service is not part of the RTA's primary mission," the statement said. "In spite of the fact that ferry service is outside the RTA's mission as well as its funding capability, we would support an agreement between the RTA, Veolia and the state to continue the ferry service on some basis that would not jeopardize current and future bus, streetcar and paratransit services in New Orleans and bus services in Kenner."
The earliest that the Regional Transit Authority would or could take over ferry operations would be September, said state Sen. David Heitmeier, D-Algiers, who sponsored the law allowing the authority to run the ferry system. He estimated that 75 percent of people who use the ferry will still be served by the reduced schedule taking effect Monday, leaving a quarter of the riders in a jam.
"This is a transition period," Heitmeier said. "The ultimate solution is a ferry system that will provide service 16 hours a day. It is very workable when you put all their numbers together, and we believe it is. We're waiting for the RTA to cross the T's and dot the I's and put that ferry system in place."
Heitmeier and others have said that in order for the ferry to operate in the future, pedestrians likely will be charged fares.
Until a longer ferry schedule is restored, the Algiers Point economy is expected to take a hit, and the Algiers Economic Development Foundation is taking note. "AEDF is very concerned about the new operating plans for the ferry and intends to aggressively pursue a more tenable schedule that meets the needs of Algiers residents and businesses," said D'Juan Hernandez, the nonprofit group's chairman.
The summer concert series Wednesdays on the Point, held beside the river levee in the shadow of the Algiers Point ferry terminal, caught a break Wednesday when the Transportation Department announced extended ferry hours specifically for the event. Through the end of July, the ferry will be operated on Wednesdays until 10:15 p.m., with the last boat leaving Algiers Point at 9:45 p.m. That's 45 minutes after the concert ends.
The same schedule will be in place on Independence Day.Bethany Lemanski, who produces the concert series for the Algiers Economic Development Foundation, greeted the news happily, for about half the people who attend the event travel from the east bank on the ferry. Many of them stay afterwards to drink in Algiers Point bars, she said.
"They all get a great push after the event, of people wanting to continue their night before getting back on the ferry," Lemanski said of the bars.
She cautioned, however, that the concerts could be sunk without ferries. "Honestly, if we lose the ferries, I don't know if we'll have this concert series next year," Lemanski said. "People don't want to take the RTA bus across the river. They want to ride the ferry."
Of the ferries in the New Orleans region, the Algiers-Canal Street line stands apart because of the large number of pedestrians who use it, its supporters say. It carried about 1.1 million pedestrians last year, aside from about 175,000 vehicles. Officials say about half of the riders are commuting to and from their jobs, many of them working in New Orleans' service industry.
Riding the ferry with his bicycle to his job at One Canal Place on a recent morning, Jose Cepeda said he moved to Algiers Point in April specifically because he could ride the boat and his bike. "I'm steps away from the ferry landing," Cepeda said. "The rent is cheaper than the Warehouse District."
Russell Blanchard bought a home in Algiers Point two years ago and started a walking tour business, Algiers Point Tours, several months ago. He said he's hesitant to invest in the business further, given the uncertainties caused by the ferry.
"I hope to be able to continue to live and work here in Algiers, a proposition that will be severely tested if the ferry is not returned to its normal operating hours soon," Blanchard said. "The goal here should be the continued growth of New Orleans as a whole, getting people out of the Quarter and into the neighborhoods. The current reduced ferry schedule and the threat of losing the ferry altogether works directly against economic growth and stabilization here in Algiers and has been doing so for quite some time."
Kevin Herridge, who owns House of the Rising Sun Bed & Breakfast in Algiers Point, fears reduced ferry hours or losing it altogether would threaten the business he and his wife opened in 1999. Fearing the effects the ferry hours will have on the economy, and on the minimum-wage workers who rely on the service, he joined the Friends of the Ferries group in Algiers about two year ago.
"A politician told me last week that by keeping a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. schedule, we had won a 'partial victory,'" Herridge said. "A partial victory is like being a little bit pregnant; You are either pregnant or not. We are not interested in partial victories.
"We want the same hours we have always had, and if anything, we want them extended. That would be a victory."
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Staff writer Richard A. Webster contributed to this report.
NOTE: This story was updated July 1 to reflect the correct number of vehicles that are carried on the Algiers/Canal Street ferry. The number is 175,000, according to the state.