ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A proposed ferry between Tampa and St. Pete cleared two hurdles on Thursday when city leaders in St. Petersburg and Tampa voted to approve funding for the ferry.
On Thursday afternoon, St. Petersburg City Council members voted 6 to 1 to approve funding for the service.
Pinellas County leaders still need to okay the project. They are expected to vote next week.
The ferry would drop people off at the waterfront near the Tampa Convention Center. The transportation service would go between that point and Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg.
For boaters Bob and Core Herb, traveling on the water is second nature. The idea of a ferry between Tampa and St. Petersburg is ideal.
“It’s definitely needed. I mean I love water ferries. We were just in New York last week and we took a water ferry from Jersey City to New York, we used it every day, every day we used it,” said Cora Herb.
The Herbs said traffic would be one less headache to deal with.
“We go back and forth between it, but I’m retired, but we have to beat that traffic all the time,” said Bob Herb.
St. Petersburg City councilwoman Darden Rice said, it’s exciting.
“This is something that we talked about for years,” she said. “I mean it’s kind of obvious, like why don’t St. Pete and Tampa talk about ways to get people back and forth through the ferry option. So this is exciting, a lot of hard work has been put into this.”
The HMS Tampa Bay Ferry would make several trips during the 6-month trial run. That includes morning and evening rush hours and a limited schedule on the weekends.
The pilot will only run with one boat and prices for the tickets are still being discussed. Right now, they’re tentatively priced at $5 to $10 round trip.
“I have great hopes that the pilot program will be successful, of course, we all wanted to see more boats and I’d love to see the fare drop down a little bit, but this is all part of our first step trying to figure out how to make it work,” said Rice.
The ferry is one of the several items on Thursday’s St. Petersburg City Council agenda. Designers also gave an update on the Pier Approach project. New renderings of the Pier Approach were revealed, which included a market square, walking waterfront, parking, restaurants and a park or amphitheater for special events.Learn more about the proposed ferry service on News Channel 8 at 5:30.
