Metro-North President Justin Vonashek cited ice damage to both ferry docks and declining ridership in the decision. He adds in a statement, “With an average daily ridership down to 62 people in 2024, spending $2.1 million per year to operate the ferry just didn’t add up.”
The ferry, which operated Monday through Friday, connected the Beacon Metro-North station to the Newburgh waterfront, allowing train riders from New York City (and vice-versa) to easily cross the Hudson.
The move has some residents and lawmakers up in arms. Representatives including Congressman Pat Ryan and State Senator Rob Rolison sent a joint letter to the MTA Board Wednesday calling on it to restore service. Rolison, a Republican from the 39th District, says the abruptness of the closure adds insult to injury.
"It's just a poor way to do business with individuals," he says. "The MTA certainly, I think, has had its challenges — not only with the finances, which is a whole other discussion — with just some of the messaging, especially when it comes to Orange County and the lack of transit services there."
Advocates have long decried a lack of public transit options west of the Hudson River. While the Metro-North’s Hudson Line provides direct access to Manhattan on the east side of the river, the Port Jervis Line requires a connection at Secaucus in New Jersey. Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed several infrastructure upgrades to speed up trains in the Hudson Valley, but they only include a “study” on rail and bus lines west of the Hudson.
For some, the loss of the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry feels like one more connection lost — even though the ferry is technically right next to the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge.
"The bridge is plagued with congestion, construction," says Philippe Pierre, owner of the Midnight Ferry ice cream parlor on the Newburgh waterfront. Pierre has helped organize the group "Save the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry," which has held multiple rallies since the closure. "The traffic getting out of the Beacon train station is really horrendous.”
The New York State Department of Transportation currently offers bus service between Beacon station and Newburgh. But even if you don’t mind the traffic over the Newburgh-Beacon bridge, riding a bus isn’t as romantic as taking a trip across the Hudson by boat.
Pierre calls the ferry’s closure a “missed opportunity” for businesses and tourism in the area, especially for those in Newburgh.
"There are folks who would regularly come from Beacon — when the timing was right, on a weekday in the afternoon, they would take the ferry from Beacon to Newburgh with their family, grab ice cream, and then take the ferry back to Beacon," he explains. "And that was just such a sweet experience for them."
The Metro-North says Beacon and Newburgh are both looking at ways to repair and repurpose their ferry docks for tourism purposes. State Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson says the floating dock in Beacon was actually owned by the MTA but was removed when ferry service ended. He’s working with the City of Beacon to come up with a plan to build a new dock that multiple stakeholders could use, including Clearwater and Bannerman Island Tours.
"Beacon will get their engineers and figure out what the plan is and how much it's gonna cost, and I'll secure the funding for it," says Jacobson.
He notes he’s disappointed by the ferry’s closure. He says the $2.1 million used to operate the ferry is a drop in a bucket, compared to the MTA’s overall budget.
"That $2 million out of the $20 billion budget is .01 percent — 1/100 of one percent," he notes. "That's the equivalent of one penny of $100."
Rolison says he’s heard no indication from the MTA nor the governor’s office so far that they’re open to restoring the ferry. He also sees it as a missed opportunity for tourism, and says the MTA could have done more to market the service and potentially boost ridership over the years.
"We've been having discussions, especially on the Newburgh side, with business owners who want to see the ferry expanded — not just the Monday through Friday service, but weekends for economic development and tourism," says Rolison. "But at the same time, I had discussions with Metro-North, and they were saying at the time that [the ferry] was losing money, there were only 60-something-odd riders per day on the commuter end, and they didn't think it was financially viable or attainable to expand it to weekends. And now it's not there at all."
