WETA Board Chair Jim Wunderman: “This grant allows WETA to move full-throttle toward converting San Francisco Bay Ferry service to zero emissions.”
The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), the company that gives the San Francisco Bay Ferry service, has gained a $13.8 million grant from the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) to impress ferry terminals and services in San Francisco and the East Bay.
The grant will fund electrical infrastructure and elevated charging capability to the Downtown San Francisco Ferry Terminal, the Main Street Alameda Ferry Terminal and WETA’s Central Bay Operations and Maintenance Facility in Alameda. This venture will permit WETA to function zero-emission, electrical ferries on San Francisco Bay Ferry’s routes connecting Oakland and Alameda to San Francisco.
“This grant allows WETA to move full-throttle toward converting San Francisco Bay Ferry service to zero emissions,” stated Jim Wunderman, Chair of the WETA Board of Directors. “California and the Bay Area have an opportunity to lead the nation in the area of water transit decarbonization and with support like this from Governor Gavin Newsom, CalSTA Secretary Toks Omishakin, and the strong coalition of legislators and stakeholders who share our vision, we know it will happen.”
This grant, which was awarded via CalSTA’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP), is the most recent in a sequence of grant awards which have been secured to help zero-emission San Francisco Bay Ferry service. CalSTA beforehand awarded $23.9 million to WETA for the creation of a brand new zero-emission ferry community connecting rising San Francisco waterfront neighborhoods. In 2022, the U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) awarded WETA $3.4 million for one in every of 4 vessels that can function on that community. The first battery-electric service funded by these grants is anticipated for 2025.
Under the brand new grant, WETA and its shoreside electrification companions will improve electrical capability on the Downtown San Francisco Ferry Terminal, Main Street Alameda Ferry Terminal and Central Bay Operations and Maintenance Facility to permit the charging of battery storage to be put in on revamped ferry floats. WETA is looking for FTA grants for charging gear on the terminals. WETA may even leverage Regional Measure 3 funding (raised via a rise in tolls on state-owned toll bridges) to speed up ferry decarbonization initiatives.
This newest grant award is the primary gained by WETA that’s targeted on zero-emission transbay ferry service. San Francisco Bay Ferry carried 1.7 million passengers on transbay journeys in 2022 on the nation’s cleanest high-speed, high-capacity fleet. Twelve of WETA’s present 16 ferries meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) highest Tier 4 emissions requirements. WETA took supply of the nation’s first Tier 4 high-speed ferry in 2017.
WETA plans to construct new high-capacity zero-emission ferries for transbay service in addition to convert some present vessels from diesel to battery electrical within the coming years.
