ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFTS) — The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority is moving forward with plans to restore ferry service between Tampa and St. Petersburg, with a board vote scheduled this week to officially begin the development process for the new transportation system that promises to transform regional connectivity.
WATCH: Tampa Bay ferry service set to return with new operator and year-round schedule
The announcement comes six months after PSTA secured crucial federal funding for the project. In June, PSTA board members unanimously voted to request a transfer of $4.86 million in federal grant money from the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, which HART subsequently approved.
The funding, originally awarded to HART through a competitive federal grant program, provides the financial foundation for acquiring ferry vessels and establishing sustainable cross-bay service.
PSTA Chair and St. Petersburg City Council member Deborah Figg-Sanders announced the latest developments during a press event on Monday.
"We are committed to creating a system stable and intended to endure for decades," Figg-Sanders said. "Our goal is to establish a sustainable service rather than reviving a previous model that faced financial challenges."
The new ferry service will be operated by Hubbard's Marina, a local family business with nearly 100 years of history in the Tampa Bay region.
Tara Hubbard, representing the marina, expressed excitement about the opportunity to fulfill her family's decades-long vision for viable water-borne transit in the region.
"This is something that my family, specifically my father, Mark Hubbard, has envisioned for decades, even before I was born," Hubbard said. "My grandfather, my great-grandfather, came to the region nearly 100 years ago and actually ferried passengers back in the barrier islands before there were even bridges."
Their historical connection to passenger ferry operations in the region predates modern bridge infrastructure, offering a unique perspective on water transportation needs.
"We see this as a really viable way for our residents and our tourists to get around the bay and even beyond," Hubbard said. "We want to see this successful for many decades in the future, and being able to be in a position our family business, Hubbards Marina, to offer that is something that we feel very excited for."
Tampa City Council Chair Alan Clendenin spoke about the transportation benefits of the cross-bay service, drawing from his extensive background in transportation management.
"Being able to have predictable and reliable ferry service between downtown Tampa and downtown St. Petersburg is going to be game-changing," Clendenin said. "I spent 32 years in air traffic control. I worked at St Petersburg-Clearwater Airport for many years at the air traffic control tower. Worked at Tampa International Airport. So I know something about transportation, and I know something about both sides of the bay."
The interlocal agreement between Tampa and St. Petersburg, signed by both city councils, establishes the legal framework for the partnership and demonstrates the commitment from both municipalities to support the service's long-term success.
Brandon Campbell, Tampa's interim mobility director, talked about the broader transportation network benefits that extend beyond individual convenience to community-wide improvements.
"Every person on that boat means one less car on the roadway, and that means benefits to the entire community," Campbell said. "If you look around you as you're driving down the interstate, you'll likely find car after car with only one person in it."
Campbell noted that the ferry service represents one component of a larger transportation strategy designed to provide residents with multiple mobility options and reduce dependence on single-occupancy vehicle travel.
"We also know there's a lot of economic opportunity that's represented by this service," Campbell said. "Getting from downtown to downtown is not always easy, so having a more direct, convenient, reliable transportation option just unlocks additional economic growth and economic opportunity."
The ferry service could be the first step towards a broader regional transportation strategy that includes potential future rail connections and enhanced bus service.
"The ferry is just one component of a larger-scale transportation system that the metropolitan area is going to be working on," Clendenin said. "From the outside looking in, we all look like we're all the same. This is one large metropolitan city, and we have to start treating it like that."
The Florida Department of Transportation incorporated provisions for light rail on the Howard Franklin Bridge during its construction, demonstrating long-term planning for multi-modal transportation connections across Tampa Bay.
Regional cooperation extends beyond the ferry project, with ongoing discussions about merging transportation planning organizations across Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties to create more coordinated regional transportation strategies.
"There's a lot of we have a lot of work that's happening," Clendenin said. "As we move people across the bay, whether it is via rail, whether it's by ferry, whether it's on our trail system, it's everything is a piece of a much larger puzzle."
The $4.86 million Federal Transit Administration grant will be used for boat procurement and infrastructure development.
Unlike the previous ferry services that operated seasonally, this new operation will run year-round, addressing one of the key limitations that affected ridership and revenue in past iterations.
PSTA officials say as a transit agency, they will receive annual capital funding credits based on ridership, providing approximately $1 million annually to support service growth and maintenance once operations begin.
"We totally see this line of revenue going back in to grow and build water-borne transit and go towards maintenance and fixing docks and stuff like that," said Darden Rice, PSTA's chief Planning and Community Affairs Officer. "It's an advantage we have this time with PSTA, overseeing the service that we didn't have previously."
The ferry is expected to dock at the North Vinoy Basin in St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg City Council has passed a resolution reaffirming the North Vinoy Basin as the preferred location, providing certainty for planning and development efforts.
The service will feature ADA-compliant vessels and docking facilities built to accessibility standards from the ground up.
Mark Safko, the owner of Paciugo Gelato Café and disability advocate, praised the focus on accessibility features in the new ferry design.
"It's going to be a tremendous opportunity for me, being disabled, to have a boat that's going to be actually ADA compliant, to have a dock that's going to be built for us so it's going to have all the ADA requirements built into it," Safko said. "It's not going to be something that's going to be done after on a dock that's already in place. It's going to be built into it."
Local business owners expressed strong support for the ferry's return, citing significant economic impacts from its absence. The business community has experienced multiple challenges in recent years, making the ferry's return particularly important for economic recovery efforts.
Jose Martinez, a board member of the downtown business association and owner of Sartorial Incorporated, detailed the cumulative impact of various factors affecting downtown businesses.
"It's been really rough, particularly for small businesses," Martinez said. "You had the two storms, you know, that was number one. Number two, you had the Rays leaving, which lost 80-odd games. So that really affected businesses."
Martinez noted additional challenges, including reduced conference activity at the Vinoy Resort and extreme summer temperatures that kept people indoors for extended periods.
"It was 48 days, or 49 days above indexing temperature. It was really, really hard. People just weren't moving around downtown, as they normally would," Martinez said. "And it's amazing how all of those things, if you start shaving 2% because of one and 3% because of the other and so forth, businesses were down by and large, in many businesses, 20 plus percent."
Previous ferry data showed that approximately 77% of passengers spent money at restaurants, museums and shops during their cross-bay trips, demonstrating the direct economic impact of the service on local businesses.
Debbie Safko, Mark's wife and business partner, says the North Vinoy Basin location will support downtown commerce.
"Everybody can just get off the boat, come and walk to the businesses all along Beach Drive and Central Avenue and downtown and museums," Safko said. "Parking is difficult now, they just get off the boat and walk on over and enjoy our fine city and the fine city of Tampa."
The first phase of the contract focuses on boat procurement, with officials working to identify the most suitable vessel or vessels for the operation. The procurement process will consider both new and used options.
"The way this the contract was structured, is the first phase is actually boat procurement," Hubbard said. "We hope to likely replicate something that was here. The vessel that was used before was a pretty good model."
Officials are considering the possibility of operating multiple vessels to increase service frequency and reliability, though initial operations may begin with a single boat depending on procurement outcomes.
"We would love that, but it again depends on what we can procure with that grant that we have right now," Hubbard said regarding the potential for multiple vessels. "More vessels would likely be, in my opinion, the merrier for the future."
The timeline for launching the service depends on boat procurement decisions and dock construction requirements. However, officials say they hope to begin operations as soon as possible.
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