Board Still Waiting For Its $250M For New Ferry Service

Board Still Waiting For Its $250M For New Ferry Service
By Erik N. Nelson/MediaNews Group
and SARAH ROHRS/Times-Herald staff writer
Article Launched: 04/01/2008



Intintoli: 'I think we're going to be able to do a great job for the Bay Area.'

SAN FRANCISCO - On Monday, a new Bay Area public transit agency came to life, promising to launch a fleet of new ferries and then rally those boats to move commuters across the Bay if and when a major earthquake disables bridges or BART's transbay tube.

The Legislature created the Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority last year to marshal the area's ferries after a natural disaster or terror attack disables bay crossings or their approaches. Very late in the process, the legislation was altered to allow the agency to take control of ferry services now run by Alameda and Vallejo.

And while Vallejo city officials expressed anger over that move, the city's former mayor, Tony Intintoli Jr., expressed optimism Monday about the new agency. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Intintoli to co-chair the new panel.

"I think we're going to be able to do a great job for the Bay Area," Intintoli said at the first meeting of the authority's board of directors in the Port of San Francisco's Pier 1 building. For Vallejo's Baylink ferries, "this is a great opportunity for continuing the expansion of the service."

Intintoli said that so-called cleanup legislation promised after the 11th-hour legislation changes will safeguard Vallejo's interests.

"I'm confident through the negotiations going on that we're going to reach a situation where we can protect Vallejo's assets and the investments we have in our ferries, parking lots and contacts related to the development of the waterfront," Intintoli said.

Vallejo Public Works Director Gary Leach, who also attended the WETA meeting, said the city is working with consultants on the cleanup legislation designed to protect the ferry system and compensate Vallejo for boats and other infrastructure.

Intintoli urged the board to review the importance of Vallejo's ferries in the city's economic efforts to revitalize and develop Mare Island, downtown and the waterfront.

The panel also discussed proposed Mare Island ferry refueling and maintenance facility improvements and the possibility of expanding those to accommodate more boats.

As an organization, the new authority will closely resemble the Bay Area's Water Transit Authority, which it replaced. On Monday the board hired WTA chief executive officer Steven Castleberry as its new executive director, who promised to maintain the current management structure.

But the agency will have a key advantage over the old authority. The agency is empowered to actually operate ferry services. Aside from running Vallejo's ferries and Alameda's services between San Francisco's Ferry Building, Oakland's Jack London Square, Alameda and Harbor Bay, WETA will be setting up new services.

The agency will do that with the help of $250 million in bond money out of the $20 billion transportation bond, passed by state voters in 2006 as Proposition 1B. Board members and ferry promoters alike lamented the fact that the Legislature, waiting for the board to be appointed by the governor, state Senate leader and Assembly speaker, has only allocated $25 million so far.

Castleberry told the board that the first of the new services - from South San Francisco to Jack London Square - probably won't begin until 2010. That news disappointed the city's mayor, who attended the inaugural meeting.

"I had hoped it would be sooner than that," said Mayor Pedro Gonzalez, whose city has already nailed down federal, county and regional funds for much of the $45 million cost of building a ferry terminal and buying two ferry boats.

The new agency will also continue its efforts to launch services linking San Francisco with Berkeley or Albany, where an environmental review is under way, as well as Redwood City, Hercules, Richmond, Antioch/Martinez and Treasure Island.

And, of course, there's the "emergency" in the new name. Castleberry said he expects that in about a year, the agency will have completed an emergency response plan.

On the major expense side, the authority may need to consider setting up extra docking facilities, above the two additional docks called for in the San Francisco Port Authority's master plan.

Among the many details the plan would need to iron out would be who would be in charge when disaster strikes. In the early hours after such an event, before sophisticated command centers are set up, first responders like police and rescue workers would be in charge, he said.

In the case of water transit, ferry captains would need to call the shots.

During the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, which damaged and closed the Bay Bridge for a month, the new authority's operations chief Keith Stahnke was a Gold Line captain who took such initiative.

"He just pulled up to the (ferry building pier), stuck his head out the window and said, 'Hey, does anybody want to go to Oakland?' "