Circle Line Ferry Loses Contract On Ellis, Liberty

Circle Line, a water transit company often maligned for charging steep fares, operating with substandard equipment, and subjecting passengers to hour-long waits to board its vessels, yesterday lost a lucrative National Park Service contract to provide ferry service to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It has been the exclusive link to the tourist attractions for 54 years.

Hornblower Yachts, Inc., a San Francisco-based company that offers a tourist ferry to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, won the bid for a 10-year contract to provide the service, reportedly worth $350 million. Six companies bid on the contract, which must be approved by Congress within 60 days. Hornblower is also open to working with the city to expand service to Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park, a company spokeswoman said.

Discussions of expanding harbor ferry service come at a time when the city is looking to its rivers to relieve congestion on its roads. This week, the city also applied for federal dollars to fund a new ferry line to the Rockaways from Manhattan.

Hornblower, which as part of the contract must buy Circle Line's eight Liberty and Ellis Island boats, is considering replacing the vessels or, at minimum, retrofitting the fleet with new equipment.

"Everything is on the table when a new operator comes in," a spokeswoman for Hornblower, Tegan Firth, said. "There will be some changes."

The contract, when approved, will increase fares by 50 cents. Beginning in October, when Hornblower is expected to assume service, adults would pay $12 to travel to the Statue of Liberty from Manhattan, and children ages 12-andunder would pay $5 for the ride.

The contract for the ferry service had not been put for competitive bidding since 1998.

"We are very disappointed by the decision by the National Park Service to award the Statue of Liberty ferry contract to another carrier," the president of the Circle Line, John Meyer, said in a statement. The company will continue providing sightseeing tour boats from its South Street Seaport and Midtown launch sites, as well as ferries to Yankee Stadium and Sandy Hook, N.J., from Manhattan, he said.