North Ferry's rate hike approved

The Suffolk County Legislature on Thursday approved North Ferry’s application to raise its fares. The vote was unanimous, according to Julie Ben-Susan, the general manager of the Heights Property Owners Corporation, which owns the ferry company.

She said the increase won’t be final until County Executive Steve Levy signs off on it and the company did not expect to put it into effect for another month or so.

The rate hike is expected to give North Ferry an increase in annual revenues of $410,154, according to the company, up 7.8 percent from last year’s revenues of $5,229,709. Most of that additional revenue, more than $275,000, would come from non-discounted fares.

An 18.2-percent increase in the rate for resident 5-day commuter passes, up from $22 to $26, was a “sticking point” for Shelter Island Town Supervisor Dougherty and the town’s Ferry Advisory Committee. It wrote North Ferry asking  it to amend its application to reduce that increase from $26 to $24 but  the company refused, saying it needed the revenue.

North Ferry filed the rate request with the legislature on May 16, saying its costs had kept rising even as ridership had slumped and that it had been operating in the red.

For Island residents, the price of a book of 10 round-trip tickets will rise from $48 to $52, 8.3 percent, or 20 cents per trip. The price of a five-day round-trip pass will rise from $22 to $26, up 18.2 percent, or 40 cents a trip. That would be the same $2.60-a-trip rate proposed for a book of 10 resident round-trip tickets.

Six-day commuter passes will no longer be offered.

The separate higher fare for SUVs will be eliminated, and the truck rate will be applied to vehicles 22 feet long instead of 20. Modified vehicles — trucks and vans with extensions — will no longer qualify for discounted rates.

Same day round-trip tickets will cost $15, up 15.3 percent from $13. The one-way fare will go up $1 to $10, or 11 percent. Non-residents will pay $79 for a book of 10 round-trips, up 9.7 percent from $72, and $62 for a book of 10 one-way tickets, up 8 percent from $57.

No change will be made in the rates for foot passengers, which are $1.50 for residents who buy them in the ferry office and $2 for others. The walk-on rate last went up in 2006 to $2 for everyone but, after a local outcry, the county reduced the fare for residents.

The  increases will not affect the bicycle rate of $5 per trip, or $3 per trip with a commuter discount.