NY: Orange County fills MTA board seat amid Newburgh-Beacon Ferry uncertainty

After two years without an Orange County representative on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, the state confirmed Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus' nomination of county Legislator Jimmy O'Donnell to the position last month.

O'Donnell previously served as the MTA's chief of police from February 1999 to December 2003. His appointment to the board 22 years later comes as the agency is experiencing major changes that affect Orange County residents, including the implementation of congestion pricing for commuters driving into lower Manhattan and the closure of long-running ferry service between Newburgh and Beacon.

Asked why the seat has been open for two years, Rebecca Sheehan, a spokeswoman for Neuhaus' office, said, "It was important to take the time to seek out the right candidate to send to the governor. Jim O'Donnell is the right candidate. The (state) Senate confirmation process can only happen when the Senate is in session. that caused a delay, as well."

State Sen. James Skoufis, a vocal critic of the MTA whose district covers most of Orange County, and other local officials have expressed frustration about Orange County's lack of a representative, especially after the MTA approved congestion pricing last year. In January, Gov. Kathy Hochul enacted the program, which tolls most drivers $9 to drive south of 60th Street in Manhattan. Hudson Valley lawmakers have claimed the plan was particularly unfair to Orange County commuters because of a lack of access to the Metro-North Railroad on their side of the Hudson River.

O'Donnell's drawn-out commute to MTA headquarters last month for his first meetings may serve as an example of that: He drove to the Harriman train station, rode the train to Hoboken, took the PATH train to the World Trade Center, then the 5 train to Bowling Green, near the MTA at 2 Broadway.

"It was a 12-hour day," he told the Times Union.

Despite the lack of public transit from west of the Hudson into New York City, O'Donnell said he supported congestion pricing — at least right now. He pointed to his daughter's experience; her commute has changed from driving into the city to taking a bus from Goshen. O'Donnell said she has saved 30 minutes a day, which "increased the time with her family."

But O'Donnell said he plans to study the data after a year to see how congestion pricing has affected his constituents.

"That's when we start the fight for more services west of the Hudson," he said.

O'Donnell is not pleased with the lack of representation for mid- Hudson counties on the MTA board, which amounts to a quarter vote each for Orange, Rockland, Dutchess and Putnam counties. He plans to push for each of those mid- Hudson counties to get a full vote. O'Donnell noted he is not sure how much of a difference it would make in terms of which policies or programs are approved, but he believes it would improve public perception of how much the MTA cares about those communities.

On the board, O'Donnell said he plans to advocate for Orange and west-of- Hudson communities to be considered in studies and decisions about transportation options. He was interested in seeing a rail spur on the Port Jervis line from Salisbury Mills to Stewart Airport, but said it doesn't appear cost-effective, citing a recent MTA study. But O'Donnell noted Orange County is in the early stages of exploring a rail connection that would travel from the Beacon station through the city of Newburgh via Broadway.

"That would be a home run," he said.

Locals rally to save Newburgh-Beacon Ferry

For 20 years, the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry provided commuters and other travelers without cars in Newburgh with a cheap option to reach the Metro-North station in Beacon. It ran during business rush hours on weekdays and cost $1.75 one way for adults, and less for certain qualifying riders.

But the ferry hasn't been running since January, when the river had iced over. When the ice thawed, the MTA found the dock in Beacon was "damaged beyond repair," Metro-North Railroad President Justin Vonashek said.

Despite local organizing efforts calling for ferry service to be restored, Vonashek said there are no plans to bring it back. Ridership has been low and the cost to maintain the service is so high that it isn't worth it to the MTA to keep it running.

"We're really looking at ways to do business differently at the MTA and really using our resources more efficiently to figure out what better ways to invest in our systems and our customers," Vonashek said. "It didn't really make sense to invest in a transportation need that didn't exist."

Vonashek said the ferry's ridership peaked in 2008 at an average of 227 people a day. That has since dipped to an average of 62 people a day. The service costs the MTA more than $2 million a year to run.

Vonashek noted that the state Department of Transportation has been providing low-cost bus service between Newburgh and Beacon since January. Still, there has been a concerted effort to revive the ferry. A group of residents and politicians spoke at a rally on July 8 at the dock on the Newburgh side, calling on the MTA to restore service. U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan also penned a letter to MTA CEO Janno Lieber saying closing the ferry would harm regional tourism and disrupt commuters.

"Unfortunately, for my constituents, the underlying issue here feels very familiar," the letter read. "Just like the MTA's uninformed congestion pricing plan, MTA has found another way to fail Hudson Valley residents, turning its back on our community while taking our tax dollars."

The grassroots organizers have printed digital flyers, scripted chants and were selling T-shirts ahead of another rally Tuesday evening at the Beacon dock. One of the organizers, Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, acknowledged to the MTA board during its June 25 meeting that the ferry had low attendance. But she said the problem was the ferry's "limiting" schedule and lack of advertising.

"I find the discontinuation of the ferry as opportunistic," she said. "There has not been any kind of concerted effort to improve it, to pilot other schedules or even a weekend ferry, but it doesn't have to be that way. ... We should, together, with Orange County and Dutchess County and the MTA, strive to create a multimodal system that integrates bus, ferry and walkability."

O'Donnell has a "use it or lose it" stance on continuing ferry service. He said Tuesday he would like to see the MTA survey former ferry riders to understand why so many people stopped using it.

"I'm for the ferry returning, as long as the customers use it," he said. "I'm not for it coming back and only having 60 people."