With new ferry operating in Crown Point, Essex ferry shuts down
There’s more bad news this morning for commuters in the Champlain Valley.
The Lake Champlain Transportation Company says it plans to end ferry service between Essex New York and Charlotte Vermont beginning tomorrow.
That will add hours to the daily drive for hundreds of workers in the mid-Champlain Valley who cross to reach jobs and services in Burlington.
They will now have to drive north to Plattsburgh or south to Crown Point.
According to New York state transportation officials, the ferry now in use at Essex will be shifted south to Crown Point, where a new ferry terminal opened on Monday.
They blamed the change on shifting traffic patterns and ice build-up on the lake.
In recent years, the Essex-Charlotte ferry had remained open through the winter.
The Crown Point-Addison ferry is operating 24 hours a day, seven days of week, carrying cars free of charge.
A new bridge at Crown Point is expected to be built by the summer of 2011.
posted by Brian Mann @ 2/03/2010 07:04:00 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
Brian,
This is exactly what I was worried about. Does this really have to do with ice? Or is this just more economically thoughtless decision-making?
Part of living in the Adirondacks is working in and around the Adirondacks. If this community is serious about wanting people to move here full-time, bringing jobs and working locally in universities, non-profits, and businesses - they can't block off Vermont from people in the High Peaks region and beyond. They especially can't do it without warning. We get one day warning!
It just takes me back to what looked like, to many folks I know, a snap decision to blow up a bridge that was perhaps never properly assessed for a more cost effective, less environmentally compromising restoration (though I guess you can't have a shovel-ready project for the next federal stimulus otherwise; extra jobs yes, but not necessarily long-term).
It makes me wonder again why the state picked up the tab for everyone riding the ferries- I would have continued to pay; I knew I was moving here in part because of the accessibility of the ferry. Now, the ferry down south is seemingly more important than the one at Essex? It isn't a trade-off situation. Thoughtless and shortsighted thinking.
Sorry, the ice thing doesn't quite fly for me. Maybe I'm wrong but ferries regularly travel through ice in various parts of the country. Why not here?
The Adirondack Park cannot be a economic oasis, no more than it can be a conservation oasis. We need to grow our economic ties/networks and grow the conservation ethic, and continue to integrate them both into the fabric of the community in ways that supports and allows their sustainable growth and wealth. Shutting the Essex ferry is a step in the wrong direction.
This is crazy. Solve one problem for commuters and businesses in the Champlain Valley, and then create another one (for a different group of people and businesses) within days?!
Who can we contact to express our dismay?
Has anyone FOILed the NY DOT for those traffic statistics? They surely must have them, and it sounds like some people would like to see them. Would NCPR do this?
Brian:
I just wish Lake Champlain Transportation Co. would be honest about it and it would be easier to accept. It has very little to do with ice which they have operated in for many years. The deal they made with New York State and perhaps Vermont to operate the temporary Crown Point/Addison ferries is probably more lucrative than Charlotte/Essex during the winter. Keep in mind that this could mean no winter ferry for three years if they stick to the current explanation.
Why assume that the current explanataion will hold true? There seems to be no time for any true regional planning, since each phase of this issue has been approached as an "emergency."
As we read above, it seems many people doubt how candid NY DOT has been about the circumstances surrounding the demolition of the old bridge, and are beginning to wonder if their emergency mode isn't a way to get things done without irksome public debate or a long-term vision.
Another unpopular question I've heard raised, with considerable grounding, is that Crown Point might not have been the best site for a new bridge, if Plattsburgh had been considered. Which is not to say a crossing at Crown Point is not essential. Ferries can supplement bridges in both seasonal and year-round ways, but we do need to see the numbers on crossings, in summer and winter. This might, at least, help people understand how much of the decisions about where to cross, and when, are up to the state(s), how much to private companies?
Sounds like we really need to have a broader converstion about this. Many people's jobs and lives are affected in big ways.
Just for the record, it's nice to see that Brian Mann got at least part of the story right here when he didn't just buy the "closure because of ice" BS that some local media did (such as the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and the Glens Falls Post Star).
There is no ice at the Essex-Charlotte crossing - none.
They don't have enough ferries! That is what the problem is.
Do some journalism local media!
Starting an email petition to open Essex-Charlotte ferry. Tell us how the ferry closing has affected you. Please email opentheferry@yahoo.com
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