June 10, 2008
Open House News…
The Rockaway Ferry Open House aboard the American Princess Sunday June 1, 2008 was a great success. We thank everyone who attended. It was truly a pleasure spending time together, meeting some of you for the first time, as well as, seeing some of our old friends once again. We appreciate having the opportunity to speak with you and found our conversations concerning the affairs of our community to be very insightful, as were your questions and ideas.
We thank you once again for stopping by and especially for supporting the Rockaway Ferry. We look forward to welcoming you aboard!
Sincerely,
The Rockaway Ferry Team
May 29, 2008
Dear Fellow Rockaway Ferry Supporters,
TWFM Ferry Inc., the proud owners of the American Princess, along with New York Water Taxi, invite you, your friends and family for an OPEN HOUSE gathering aboard the Rockaway Ferry.
We look forward to introducing ourselves, our vessel and crew to you over coffee and cake on Sunday June 1, 2008 between 5:00 PM and 6:30 PM at Riis Landing. We certainly hope you can join us… stroll aboard our vessel, enjoy the wonderful view, and see the American Princess up close and personal.
A suggestion box will be available for you to "drop" your ideas into …
We welcome the opportunity to answer your questions and look very forward to seeing you there!
Sincerely,
The Rockaway Ferry Team
May 5, 2008
Dear Fellow Rockaway Ferry Supporters,
It is with great pleasure that TWFM Ferry Inc., in conjunction with New York Water Taxi, announce that your long awaited “Rockaway Ferry" has become a reality!!!
On May 5, 2008 Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn officially announced New York Water Taxi as the selected ferry operator. Weekday service aboard the
American Princess will start as early as Monday May 12, 2008.
We’d like to thank all of you for your tremendous support; we could not have done it without YOU!!!
Sincerely,
The Rockaway Ferry Team
July 31, 2007
Thank you for your continued support.
Unfortunately, there are no new developments to report. We are at a standstill waiting on word
from the selection committee to either inform us of a selection or request additional information.
Like you, we’re waiting…
However, while we’re waiting, we want to thank all of you for the support you have given us.
From our local stores and restaurant owners who encouraged their customers to sign our petitions,
to our family, friends, neighbors, and community leaders who took to the streets for signatures, community
associations who wrote support letters, local developers, petition signers, and to everyone who e-mailed
us their travel times, opinions, suggestions or just their name to show support - WE THANK YOU!
Lastly, we want to update you on the status of our petitions, as well as, inform you of a new one that is
online now.
Petition signature count:
We have received just over 2000 signatures in less than one month. This total is the number of signatures
from our paper petitions circulating Rockaway in addition to the number of online signatures.
The signatures keep coming in, raising the count daily. Let’s keep up the great work!
New petition:
A new petition has been added which has fields for your city and zip code. This information is vital in helping to
determine the number of potential ferry riders by neighborhood. There are some additional optional fields as well.
Remember, only your name, city and zip code will appear on the petition, but your e-mail address is required in order
to prevent duplicate entries.
The location of the new petition is http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ferry
We would appreciate if you would sign this petition, even if you signed the original petition, and spread the word.
July 2, 2007
A new online petition has been created for the Rockaway Ferry Service. Please follow this link to sign the petition.
June 21, 2007
Another step closer…
Today, all interested parties wishing to respond to the RFEI concerning our Rockaway Ferry needed to submit their paperwork by 4:00pm. And from the early buzz around town, we believe more than a couple of companies entered the bidding war. That’s GOOD NEWS FOR ROCKAWAY!!!!
TWFM Ferry Inc. wishes all these companies good luck as we move forward towards our common goal of delivering this well needed, well deserved ferry service to a great community.
Now it’s in the hands of the selection committee to determine which company will best meet the needs of our community. This process has no time frame attached to it, however, we will keep you updated as it comes in to us. Let’s hope for a quick selection process and that the selected company is willing and able to commence service sooner rather than later. Of course we hope that’s us!
Today TWFM Ferry Inc. and New York Water Taxi entered into the bidding war together as a team in hopes of being awarded the opportunity to make your ferry a reality. With principles of both companies being residents, you can rest assured that your best interest will be considered at every turn. And yes, we are willing and able to commence service sooner rather than later.
We thank all of you for your generous and continued support!
June 1, 2007
On 5/30/07, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) held an informational session concerning the Rockaway Ferry. The meeting attracted a nice size crowd including many local and out of state ferry companies.
Of course our representatives were in attendance and participated in the question and answer type dialog, which consisted of reviewing and clarifying the details in the RFEI. Our reps were very encouraged by many of the city representatives’ answers and were especially encouraged by the reasonable criteria and requirements to be considered an acceptable operator.
At this point TWFM Ferry Inc. welcomes you, our neighbors and friends, to get more involved with us in this exciting new venture by completing the form on our home page and in the "comments" field indicate your arrival/departure time (i.e., the AM time you need to arrive for work in the city, as well as the PM time you would like to depart from the city). This will enable us to complete a proposal with arrival/departure times that best meet the needs of our community.
All proposals are due in by June 21, 2007, so it would be most helpful if you could get the word out to all prospective commuters and have them sign up on our web site as a supporter, as well as, send us their arrival/departure time preferences in the "comments" field.
Once again, thank you for your support!
Check back with us soon!
May 24, 2007
TWFM Ferry Inc., owners of the American Princess happily relay the exciting news to all Rockaway residents that their ferry service looks closer to becoming a reality! Yes, it has been announced by Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council that the city is committed to bringing a ferry to the Rockaways and will fund a two year pilot program to an operator yet to be identified.
The Economic Development Corporation (EDC), on behalf of the City of NY, has issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) soliciting responses from ferry companies. The responses are due by June 21, 2007. The EDC is requesting all interested ferry companies to attend an informational session on May 30th 2007 to clarify/answer any questions they may have. TWFM will have a representative(s) attending.
Regardless of which company receives the pleasure of running this service, TWFM looks forward to seeing the Rockaway community awarded an alternate mode of transportation that efficiently, reliability and safely brings you, your friends and family to and from lower Manhattan. And yes, at a reasonable price!
As stated in an article in the New York Times May 9th issue, “The price for the service will depend on the proposals but officials said they hoped it would cost about the same as express bus service, about $4.00 each way.”
The projected Queens departure site for the Rockaway Ferry is slated to be Riis Landing. Riis Landing is located at the old US Coast Guard Station Rockaway at the south tip of the Marine Parkway Bridge (Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge). This location has onsite parking.
Check back with us periodically for the latest ferry information including timelines, up-coming meetings, contact numbers etc…
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