The nonprofit group hoping to start a commuter ferry in the Portland area released a detailed report Tuesday estimating it would cost at least $40 million in up-front costs and would require $2.6 million in annual subsidies.
Friends of Frog Ferry, which has spent nearly three years starting a grassroots effort to pursue the river transportation system, released a feasibility study and finance plan to reporters and supporters. Those reports were funded by a $240,000 state transportation grant and $40,000 from the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Susan Bladholm, Frog Ferry’s founder, said the analysis found a ferry system between downtown Vancouver and Portland is doable, financially viable and would conservatively draw 3,000 riders per day.
“Our community deserves this,” Bladholm said of the river system during a news conference with reporters. “We deserve to connect to our riverways.”
The two reports are the most significant documents released yet by the nascent ferry group, which Bladholm started in 2017 and has built in large part thanks to pro-bono contributions from local businesses and interested parties with financial means, such as the Zidell family.
Now it must figure out which public agency, if any, will raise its hand to fund the system in coming years. That request comes as ridership has plummeted across public transit systems due to the COVID-19 pandemic and as the region girds for the economic fallout from 2020. A proposed payroll tax on employers to fund billions of dollars in transportation projects is also on the November ballot. The ferry is not slated to receive funding through the Metro package.
Bladholm, a former state economic development official and marketing executive for aviation giant Erickson Inc., has made the river system her primary objective.
John Sainsbury, president of a Seattle-based Maritime Consulting Partners, authored the reports.
According to the documents, the vessels, docks and capital costs needed to start a ferry system would total at least $40 million. If ticket prices ran roughly $5 per ride, with $3 for honored citizens, the system would cost roughly $8.50 per rider to operate.
For comparison, TriMet frequent service buses, pre-COVID, cost roughly $3.18 per rider, according to TriMet records. MAX trains cost roughly $4.14 per rider in February. Portland Streetcar, on which the ferry group said it hoped to base its governance system, costs roughly $3 per rider, pre-pandemic.
TriMet’s commuter rail, the Westside Express Service, costs roughly $29 to operate per rider pre-pandemic.
Bladholm said the reports show the ferry plan makes sense. “We have no interest in starting a ferry service that is not economically sustainable,” she said.
Bladholm’s financial plan is predicated on a system with seven ships, with vessels running Monday through Friday during peak morning and evening commutes. The proposed ferries would have either 100 or 70-person capacity, depending on what part of the river they were serving, with smaller vessels running south between downtown Portland and Lake Oswego.
The financial plan estimates the system would require a roughly $2.6 million local subsidy. Fares are estimated to cover roughly 45% of operating costs.
Ferry backers say the operational costs are reasonable. According to the report, some 37 states have passenger ferries as of 2016, transporting 119 million passengers.
Bladholm noted that the federal government typically matches ferry services starting around an 80% level, compared to 50% for bus or rail projects.
Backers believe the Portland area would be competitive for federal grants since it has not tapped those funds and because the metro region’s traffic congestion points to the need for alternative transit modes.
According to those documents, a ferry system running between downtown Vancouver and Portland would move commuters in 44 minutes.
If Portland moves forward with a ferry, the system would face challenges, including a dearth of dock infrastructure.
Plans call for a stop at Cathedral Park, which would increase that trip to 55 minutes. That stop, in particular, could be challenging due to a relative lack of parking and the steep hill between the river and St. Johns.
The Steel Bridge’s lower deck would force boats to be smaller, single-deck ferries, limiting overall capacity to about 100 passengers on that stretch of river.
Sainsbury said working around the Steel Bridge may drive up costs on the front-end due to the limited number and style of vessels that would work here, but he thinks that ultimately makes for a better system because planners will need smaller vessels running more frequently in order to offer service every 30 minutes.
“I view it as an advantage,” he said of the smaller fleets.
The stretch of river from downtown to Lake Oswego presents other issues, like more recreational boaters, a narrower river with tighter turns and floating homes lining some areas of the shore, all of which would make navigating more of a challenge. Plans call for smaller and more nimble boats on that stretch of the river.
“Debris in the water presents a real risk to the vessels and passengers as well as to the reliability of the service,” the report states.
But Sainbury said those challenges are all workable.
Bladholm said the next steps include trying to secure a local public agency to sponsor the service and submit an application for federal funding. That sponsor doesn’t necessarily have to be the ultimate operator, but the nonprofit is not eligible to apply for and receive federal funding.
The ferry group said it hopes to start a pilot program by the summer of 2022 and, if all goes well, launch a passenger system in the summer of 2024.
In 2018 the group estimated service would start by 2022, and in 2019 supporters eyed service by spring 2023.
Bladholm stated that the region has a “great opportunity in front of us.”
-- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen