The City of New York owns the Staten Island Ferry. The city holds direct legal title to every vessel in the fleet and to both terminal buildings, and the New York City Department of Transportation runs the service day to day. There is no private operator, no franchise, and no contract carrier behind the scenes. NYC DOT puts it plainly: the agency “owns and operates the Staten Island Ferry.”1NYC DOT. NYC DOT – Ferries and Buses
A Municipal Service Since 1905
The city has owned the route since 1905, when it took over operations from a private railroad company, the Staten Island Rapid Transit.2NYC Municipal Archives. The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of the New York City Municipal Ferry Before the city acquired it, the crossing had passed through several private hands over roughly a century, including a stretch under Cornelius Vanderbilt in the mid-1800s. The 1905 takeover was part of a broader push to bring essential transit links under public control, and the ferry has stayed in municipal hands ever since.3NYC DOT. Staten Island Ferry Facts
That distinguishes the Staten Island Ferry from the private water taxis and commercial harbor cruises that share New York Harbor. Those boats belong to private corporations. The orange ferry belongs to the public.
What the City Actually Owns
City ownership covers the full operation. The fleet consists of six vessels across two classes: the three Ollis-class boats (Staff Sergeant Michael H. Ollis, Sandy Ground, and Dorothy Day) and the three Molinari-class boats (Guy V. Molinari, Sen. John J. Marchi, and Spirit of America). Together they move more than 16 million passengers a year across the 5.2-mile route between Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan and St. George Terminal on Staten Island.3NYC DOT. Staten Island Ferry Facts The city also owns both terminal buildings and the related infrastructure.
Owning a passenger vessel fleet carries real legal weight. Because the city is the owner, it bears full liability for what happens on the boats and at the terminals, including premises liability for passenger injuries and obligations under federal maritime law. Crew members injured on the job can bring claims against the city under the Jones Act, which gives seamen the right to sue their employer for negligence.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 46 USC 30104 – Personal Injury to or Death of Seamen
Who Runs It Day to Day
NYC DOT operates the ferry through its Ferry Division, which handles scheduling, vessel maintenance, crew management, and terminal operations. The division directly employs the captains, mates, marine engineers, and deckhands who run the boats. The maritime workforce is unionized, with captains, mates, and engineers represented by District No. 1 of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association.5NYC.gov. MEBA Memorandum of Agreement 2010-2027 The workforce runs to roughly 150 people across multiple titles.
One slice of operations sits with a different city agency. In 2024, NYC DOT and the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced the return of retail concessions to the terminals under a new 10-year lease with an option for two additional five-year extensions. NYCEDC manages those lease agreements and ran the competitive selection process to pick the concessionaire.6NYC.gov. Back on Board: NYC DOT and NYCEDC Announce Concessions Will Return to the Staten Island Ferry DOT owns the buildings; EDC handles the commercial side.
The Legal Basis for City Ownership
The city’s authority to run the ferry comes from the New York City Charter. Section 2903 gives the DOT commissioner responsibility for the “construction, operation, maintenance and repair of all ferries of the city,” and the same provision declares the city’s ferries to be public highways, which puts them in the same legal category as bridges and roads.7American Legal Publishing. New York City Charter – Chapter 29: Department of Transportation – Section 2903 That classification carries a duty. The city has to keep the route open to the public and cannot simply shut it down because ridership drops.
The ride is also free by law. Foot passengers have paid nothing since July 4, 1997, when Mayor Rudolph Giuliani eliminated the 50-cent fare, and that policy is now locked into NYC Administrative Code § 19-304, which prohibits charging any fare to foot passengers on a city-owned ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island.8American Legal Publishing. NYC Administrative Code 19-304 – Ferry Rates to Staten Island Limited Changing it would take a city council amendment, not just an administrative decision. Because there is no fare revenue, the entire operating cost falls on the city’s expense budget, funded by municipal tax revenues and intergovernmental transfers. Federal Transit Administration grants help offset some capital costs.9Federal Transit Administration. Passenger Ferry Grant Program 2021 Selected Projects
Federal Agencies Still Have a Say
City ownership does not mean the city operates without federal oversight. The U.S. Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime safety and inspects the ferry vessels. The Coast Guard also administers the Maritime Security (MARSEC) system, a three-tiered framework covering all regulated vessels and port facilities.10United States Coast Guard. Maritime Security (MARSEC) At MARSEC Level 1, the default, the ferry maintains baseline security protocols. The Commandant of the Coast Guard can raise the level to 2 or 3 if a credible threat emerges, which triggers escalating security measures the ferry must follow.
The Transportation Security Administration plays a supporting role, focusing on passenger security and the connections between ferry terminals and other transit modes while deferring to the Coast Guard on maritime-specific enforcement.11Transportation Security Administration. Surface Transportation Resources For riders, these layers of federal oversight are mostly invisible. For the city, as owner, they are a real regulatory burden that comes with the title.