South Amboy Ferry 'Will Break Ground This Summer,' Town Says

SOUTH AMBOY, NJ — The town of South Amboy is confident there will be a groundbreaking this summer on their highly-anticipated direct ferry service in and out of New York City.

However, what's going to be built first is the parking lot, bulkhead and ferry slips, well before work begins on an actual ferry building, South Amboy Business Administrator Glenn Skarzynski told Patch this week.

In fact, ferry service may even start running out of there before the terminal building is finished or construction on it even begins.

"We're hoping for this summer to break ground. We're focusing on the parking lot and getting the docks in so we can get the boats up and running," said Skarzynski. "Six months later we then expect to begin the process of building the actual terminal."

The ferry terminal will be located at 1 Radford Ferry Road, next to the Manhattan Beach Club. Manhattan Beach Club is a currently under-construction 1,875-unit luxury apartment complex, scheduled to open its first rentals by the end of the summer.

A ferry operator remains undetermined as this point. It could be Seastreak, NY Waterways or the parent company that runs New York Circle Line — or any smaller, unknown ferry operator, said Skarzynski.

"There's dredging that has to be done. We have to put in new bulkheads, floating docks, the parking area has to be constructed, the lighting," said Skarzynski. "So let's say by Oct. 15 the docks are ready for ferry service, then we can put out an RFP (request for proposals) for a ferry operator."

The trip from South Amboy to Lower Manhattan is roughly 40 minutes by boat. There are already ferries to Manhattan that run out of Belford and Sandy Hook. Carteret is talking about putting ferry service in, as well.

But as the popularity of work-from-home soared in the pandemic, is there still demand for daily commuter ferry service to New York City?

Skarzynski acknowledged the massive change the New York metropolitan area workforce has experienced in the past 12 months.

"Are people going to telecommute to some degree? Yes, absolutely. But they're still going to need to go into the office at some point," he said. "And we firmly believe that at some point things will return to the 'new normal' and people will still have to commute back and forth to work in the five boroughs. Secondly, all the culture, theater, rock concerts and dining (of Manhattan) are not going to go away and people are going to need easy transport to get to all that."

South Amboy already has a North Jersey Coast line NJ Transit train station in town, so this would make the town very unique, as it would have both a train station and ferry service within steps of each other. The thinking is residents from Perth Amboy, Holmdel, Hazlet, Colts Neck/Marlboro, East Brunswick and beyond would drive into town to use the ferry service.

"We're seeing Generation Z who don't want to live in the city anymore and want to live in the suburbs," Skarzynski said. "But they want a different kind of suburb. They want condos and apartments and access to mass transit and a nice, beautiful downtown. When they get off the ferry at night, they're going to want to stroll over to fine dining, a nice cocktail. And we have that."

"We're never going to be Hoboken; we're never going to be Red Bank," he summed up. "But the development we have underway is transformational."

South Amboy says it has the funding to build the ferry

As Patch reported, in July of 2020, South Amboy received a $5.3 million federal Dept. of Transportation grant to fund the ferry. This was on top of a $10 million federal grant South Amboy first secured for the ferry in 2018.

"We believe at this point we are fully funded for the project," said Skarzynski. "We're ready to go. What we're waiting on now is for approval of the historical accommodations that we've made, plus environmental approvals and final approval from the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. We're hoping to go before them at their May 10 meeting."

The South Amboy ferry terminal site has historical significance because it was the northern terminus of the Camden-Amboy Railroad, the first commercial railroad operated in New Jersey, which ran up and down the length of the Jersey Shore in the 1800s. South Amboy was also a large coal depot to ferry coal mined in Pennsylvania to New York City, and was also a wharf used to transport explosives all over the world. Prior to this, the Lenni Lenape Indians spent centuries living on the South Amboy and Raritan Bay waterfront, and Native American artifacts abound in that area.

The town had to make historical accommodations to incorporate all of that into the design of the ferry area, a rendering of which is here:

You can watch the most recent public meeting (Feb. 25) on the ferry terminal here: https://www.southamboynj.gov/P...

And here are the planned historical accommodations that will be made: https://www.southamboynj.gov/_...

South Amboy has ambitious plans to put a high-end restaurant on the second floor of the ferry terminal and rent the terminal out for weddings and events. The area has sweeping views of Raritan Bay.

"We're anxious to get the building open to the public," said Skarzynski of the ferry terminal. "Our highest priority is establishing this vital commuter link to New York City for our residents and residents of surrounding communities."

Past coverage:

• Carteret, South Amboy Move Forward With NYC Ferry Service (January 2021)
• South Amboy To Receive $5.3 Million For Ferry To New York City (July 2020)
• NJ Transit Replacing Raritan River Bridge: Do you ride the North Jersey Coast line? NJ Transit is building a new bridge over Raritan Bay, and will demolish the current one. (Sept. 2020)
• Carteret Trying To Launch Ferry Service To Manhattan (April 2018)

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