NY Waterway Ferries Christened in NJ

In a unique double christening ceremony, Bayonne Mayor Joseph Doria and Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham smashed their champagne bottles at the same time on the newest NY Waterway ferries, The Bayonne and The Jersey City. The ferries are 149-passenger, 79-foot, bow-loading catamarans, one of 19 ferries custom-built by Allen Marine, Inc., of Sitka, Alaska, for NY Waterway. The Bayonne and The Jersey City have low-wake hulls and electronic ignition diesel engines, the cleanest-burning marine diesels presently available and meeting all existing emissions standards. “Two great leaders of two outstanding New Jersey cities, Bayonne Mayor Joseph Doria and Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham, are here today to honor their communities and their people and to note the importance of safe, reliable environmentally-friendly commuter ferry service to the future growth of the region. Thanks to these mayors, Bayonne and Jersey City are dynamic places in which to work – and great places to live,” said NY Waterway President Arthur E. Imperatore, Jr. “I am happy that the City of Bayonne is being recognized. The new ferry is a tribute to the people of our city and it’s future growth and development,” Mayor Doria said. “One cannot underestimate the importance of alternate means of transportation to the vitality and growth of a city,” Mayor Cunningham said. “As our city has grown, ferry usage has grown with it. It’s only fitting that such an honor as christening a boat in the name of New Jersey’s Shining Star, Jersey City, is bestowed upon our community.” After smashing the traditional champagne bottles, Mayor Doria and Mayor Cunningham each piloted the ferry named for their city for a cruise on the Hudson River. NY Waterway, the largest privately-owned commuter ferry service in the U.S., presently provides more than 60,000 passenger trips per day – 16 million passenger trips per year – using 52 boats on 24 routes between Queens and New Jersey and Manhattan, and between Rockland and Westchester counties, reducing auto traffic and pollution in the Metropolitan area. The company also is developing several additional routes. The company also offers the widest variety of leisure and sightseeing cruises in the New York area. On September 11, 2001, NY Waterway’s Alaskan-built ferries played a critical role in rescuing people from Lower Manhattan, in the shadow of the World Trade Center. NY Waterway evacuated 160,000 people from Manhattan on September 11, the largest one-day waterborne evacuation in history.