The Cross Bay Ferry, which has linked passengers between downtown St. Petersburg and downtown Tampa since 2017, could once again sail under a new operator.

The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), which operates the Clearwater Ferry, is now leading efforts to restore ferry service between St. Pete and Tampa after Hillsborough County recently ended its contract with HMS Ferries.

The termination came after HMS proposed replacing the current ferry with a slower vessel that would more than double one-way travel time from 50 minutes to two hours.

When the county canceled its contract with HMS, ending the Cross Bay Ferry operations on April 30th, it left $4,863,280 of unspent Federal Transit Authority (FTA) dollars on the table, which can be used towards the purchase of two new ferry boats for the Tampa-to-St. Pete service.