The ferry idea

In Tampa Bay, waterborne transportation is like carpooling: everyone thinks it's a great idea, but nobody ends up doing it.

For the last 15 years, the concept of a public ferry or water taxi shuttling commuters back and forth between Pinellas, Hillsborough, Sarasota and Manatee counties has been introduced, debated, studied and, ultimately, shelved.

In the mid-'90s, the privately owned Tampa Town Ferry carried passengers between various destinations downtown for nearly three years, until a lack of riders closed the business. Other interested entrepreneurs have faced problems with start-up costs and lack of public funding.

But once again, community leaders are reviving the idea.

As part of its emphasis on multi-mode transportation, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority envisions a commuter-type ferry service from downtown Tampa to downtown St. Pete, and from St. Pete to Bradenton.

"We want folks to start thinking about other connections, too," says TBARTA spokeswoman Cindy Sharpe.

Downtown Tampa stakeholders like the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, the Marriott Waterside Hotel and various developers have also joined the discussion, meeting with the Tampa Downtown Partnership to push for a small water taxi service similar to the Tampa Town Ferry.

"They were pretty confident it would be popular," says Christine Burdick, the downtown partnership's president.

And in January, Hillsborough County commissioners unanimously approved a $1.2 million request for a federally funded feasibility study on a ferry service for Tampa Bay.

"It's something we feel would be a benefit and offer another way to get around [the area] without your car," says Ned Baier, Hillsborough County's transportation planning manager. "It's a quality-of-life project. In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty small potatoes as far as what the costs are."

County leaders pushed for similar research in 2002. The Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization commissioned a feasibility study after Madeira Beach residents expressed interest in a water taxi service.

"It hasn't gone anywhere," says Sarah Ward, Pinellas MPO's transportation planning administrator. "No one came forth with public sector dollars."

In April 2005, the Sarasota/Manatee MPO completed its own feasibility study. They concluded a seven-vessel water taxi service reaching from Stickney Point Bridge up to Bradenton Beach and inland to Fort Hamer would cost nearly $3 million. If docking facilities were placed near congested areas, the study found, residents would embrace the idea.

"The thing about water taxis is, if people see it, they'll start riding it," says Bob Harrington of the Sarasota-Manatee MPO. "If they can see the congestion and the water taxi in the same area, it sells itself."

But the Sarasota/Manatee MPO ran into the same problem as other counties: lack of public funding.

Private money hasn't gone very far, either. In 2003, three St. Petersburg investors started the Gulf Coast Fast Ferry Service, which would use four 72-foot catamarans to shuttle passengers from the St. Petersburg Pier to Tampa's Marriott Waterside Hotel or Dolphin Landing in St. Pete Beach. After two years of working on the project, the investors abandoned their plans.

"The jurisdictions that owned the respective waterfronts refused to provide any docking facilities," says Robert Birkenstock, one of the co-owners. "We got to a point where it was such a big deal to deal with the government agencies that we said to hell with it."

Then there was developer Roger Gatewood's Seaboard Square Shuttle. Two years ago, he proposed a water taxi from Seaboard Square, his mixed-use project in the Channel District, to downtown Tampa and downtown St. Pete. He even commissioned a $75,000 study -- the most detailed to date -- that proved such a service could be profitable. Officials from St. Pete, Tampa, the Florida Department of Transportation and various businesses and attractions supported the idea.

But in 2006, Sembler Investments bought out Seaboard Square. The new developer never pursued Gatewood's ferry project.

Is waterborne transportation viable for the Tampa Bay region? Andy Bennett, a consultant who has worked on several water taxi and ferry projects throughout the nation (including Sarasota's proposal), says yes. Bennett says Tampa Bay's warm climate, calm waters and flux of tourists makes the region a great market for some sort of ferry, water taxi service or combination of the two. But the key is public funding, he says.

"In just about every place where it's operating on a commuter basis ... the capital funding is going to come from the local, state and federal government," he says.

But Hillsborough County won't be seeing that money any time soon. The funding for the newest study is tied to the federal budget, which probably won't be passed until after the national election.

"At least at the moment," explains Baier, "the earliest we'd know if we're successful is about a year from now."