Petition sent to NY Waterway!
Dear signers!
Thank you so much for supporting my petition. Today I sent the following email to WeCare@nywaterway.com. I will also print out and send a copy by mail. I will keep you posted on any response I receive. Thank you again!
Dear NY Waterway Customer Relations team,
My name is Anton Kan, and I'm a daily NY Waterway rider from the Port Liberté terminal in Jersey City. I'm writing on behalf of a large group of fellow riders to formally propose a new route — and to share the petition and commuter data we've gathered in support of it. I've also copied the management team at Oliver on the Hudson, our apartment complex, who support this initiative. I'd be grateful if this could be forwarded to your operations or route-planning team.
The request: a direct route connecting the existing Port Liberté terminal to the existing Midtown / W. 39th St. terminal. Both are already NY Waterway–operated, so this is a routing decision rather than new infrastructure.
And if a brand-new route is too costly to justify on its own, a simpler alternative might achieve the same result: extending the existing Midtown / W. 39th St. – Paulus Hook route to also stop at Port Liberté. Either approach would give our community the direct Midtown connection it needs.
The problem today: the Port Liberté terminal serves only Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan. Those of us who work in Midtown must transfer to the subway at Pier 11, adding time and a second fare each way — even though a Midtown terminal you operate sits close to our workplaces.
To test whether this is a personal frustration or genuine demand, we ran a petition and a commuter survey over the past two months. The results:
• 468 petition signatures — with 70% of signers in New Jersey and 57% in Jersey City, this is overwhelmingly local, NJ-side demand.
• 149 commuter survey responses, of whom 87% are regular Manhattan commuters and 78% travel to Midtown most often.
• 77% would use a direct Midtown route 3+ days a week; 42% would use it 5+ days a week.
• 75% would board in the 7:00–9:00 AM window, with a clear peak between 7:30 and 8:30 AM — concentrated enough to support scheduled peak runs.
• 97% would pay the current Pier 11 fare or more.
• 63% estimate their current Midtown detour adds 30+ minutes each way.
I've attached a one-page summary brief, the full petition signature export, and the complete survey results. Our neighborhood is also growing quickly — Oliver on the Hudson is a brand-new building still leasing up, and Port Liberté continues to expand — so this demand is rising, not static.
Petition: https://www.change.org/p/bring-a-direct-port-libert%C3%A9-midtown-ferry-route-to-our-community
Survey: https://forms.gle/sTpUfnNzV4h4SJ1D9
We would welcome the chance to share the full dataset and discuss feasibility with the right person on your team. Could you let me know who would be best to speak with, or what additional information would help your evaluation?
Thank you for your time, and for the service you already provide — the Port Liberté ferry is genuinely valued in our community.
Best regards,
Anton Kan
Oliver on the Hudson, 190 Chapel Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07305
freelead@gmail.com