Presque Isle bus service and water taxi: One will return for the summer, one won't

Free bus shuttle service to Presque Isle State Park will return this summer, after a one-year hiatus prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, another transportation option to the peninsula that has been available to local residents and visitors  — the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority’s water taxi service — will not operate for the second consecutive summer.

The Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority plans to re-launch the Presque Isle Express shuttle on June 14, according to Ed Torres, EMTA’s director of fixed-route operations. 

The service will run through Aug. 27.

The shuttle will pick up passengers at the West Erie Plaza in Millcreek Township and travel around Presque Isle for various stops weekdays between noon and 7 p.m. 

EMTA first launched the Presque Isle shuttle service in June 2017. The shuttle makes 14 stops. Signs mark each of the stops, as they do on EMTA’s other routes.

Bus stops:

• West Erie Plaza
• Tom Ridge Environmental Center
• Sara’s Restaurant
• Beach 1
• Barracks Beach
• Former Stull Interpretive Center
• Water Works
• Marina crossover
• Perry Monument
• The lagoons
• Beach 11
• Beach 10
• Lighthouse Beach
• Beach 6

From 2017:EMTA starts Presque Isle bus shuttle

Jeremy Peterson, EMTA’s executive director, said the transit agency decided to bring back the service this summer because it has been valuable for riders — about 1,500 people used the shuttle in 2019 —  and “we feel that the park’s going to have some serious visitation this year with things being more open.”

While Erie County’s tourism industry took a hit in 2020 due to the pandemic, Presque Isle stayed busy.

The park drew an estimated 4.9 million visitors in 2020, Operations Manager Matt Greene said.

More:Erie region's tourism industry, rocked by COVID-19 in 2020, looks to bounce back

Greene theorized that Presque Isle's beaches, trails and lagoons offered “a great way for people to be out of their homes in a relatively safe manner for physical recreation or a mental recharge.”

For more information about the Presque Isle Express, visit www.ride-the-e.com.

New bus pass app for EMTA riders

In another recent announcement unrelated to the shuttle service, EMTA has also announced that it has partnered with Token Transit, a company that provides mobile transit ticketing services, to give riders access to an app that lets passengers purchase bus passes on their smartphones.

Passengers can pay with a credit or debit card, select various fare types — such as a single-ride fare or monthly pass — and present their digital ticket to an EMTA driver for validation upon boarding. 

More information is available at www.tokentransit.com or www.ride-the-e.com/apps.

No water taxi, again

Water taxi service typically begins each June and runs through October, transporting people across Presque Isle Bay. 

The service started in 2000 as a way for tourists and residents to travel between the city and the peninsula. 

The Port Authority owns two water taxis.

The water taxi vessel, owned by the Port Authority, usually departs on the hour from Dobbins Landing, with stops at Liberty Park and Presque Isle State Park’s Waterworks area before returning to Dobbins Landing.

However, the Port Authority’s two-year agreement signed in 2019 with the taxi service’s last operator, Presque Isle Boat tours, has expired. The company, owned by Erie businessman Tim Sedney, “was not interested in a renewal,” said Brenda Sandberg, the authority’s executive director. 

Sandberg said the service saw 1,023 riders in 2019. The water taxi did not operate in 2020 because of the pandemic.

The authority has struggled to find long-term operators for the service since the 2016 retirement of Capt. Norman Schlosser, who operated the water taxi for 17 years.

More, from 2019:Erie water taxi service launches May 18, runs through Oct. 1

“When COVID hit (in 2020) we did not have the ability to operate it, obviously,” Sandberg said. “The late decisions by the state to lift COVID restrictions did not provide us an opportunity to look for another potential operator.”

Asked if the service might return in 2022, Sandberg said: “We are looking at all of our options at this point. It takes specialty training to operate the boats, and that is a challenge. It also has never been an overly profitable venture (for operators).

“But it is a nice community service,” Sandberg said, “and we will continue to look for opportunities to make it happen in the future."

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNflowers.