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A new proposal moving through the City Council involves the launch of a ferry route along the Harlem River, something the city has never had before. The idea, introduced by Council Member Althea Stevens, would connect parts of Upper Manhattan to the West Bronx, offering a faster (and significantly more scenic) alternative to packed trains and buses.
Right now, Bronx ferry access is limited to just two stops (Soundview and Throgs Neck), leaving much of the borough’s western side without a direct link to the city’s growing ferry network. The new route would change that, potentially serving tens of thousands of commuters and opening up a stretch of waterfront that’s largely been ignored by transit planners.
The proposal doesn’t greenlight boats just yet. Instead, it calls on the city’s Department of Transportation to study everything from potential stops to boat size to cost, with a public report due within a year. But the timing is not accidental.
With this year’s FIFA World Cup set to bring massive crowds to MetLife Stadium across the river in New Jersey, officials are scrambling to find ways to move people without completely overwhelming the region’s already strained transit system. And ferries, which are relatively quick to deploy compared to new rail lines, are suddenly looking like a very practical fix.
There’s also a parallel push to revive ferry service from West Harlem’s 125th Street pier to Edgewater, New Jersey, a route that could clock in at under 10 minutes and bypass some of the region’s most notorious choke points. That pier, notably, has been sitting largely unused since it was built in 2009 for about $20 million.
Federal funding is adding urgency to both ideas. Roughly $100 million has been set aside for World Cup-related transit projects, but the deadline to secure those funds is fast approaching, which means any ferry plan would need to move very quickly.
Still, even if the World Cup timeline proves too tight, supporters say the long-term case is clear. New York’s ferry system has been steadily expanding in recent years, with millions of annual riders and new routes connecting previously underserved neighborhoods.
A Harlem River route would push that expansion further—turning a long-overlooked waterway into a legitimate commuting option and maybe, finally, making good on the city’s biggest natural advantage: it’s surrounded by water.