St. Pete–Tampa ferry prepares for relaunch with new operator search

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St. Pete–Tampa ferry prepares for relaunch with new operator search

After a three-month pause, daily ferry service across Tampa Bay is now one step closer to returning.

The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) has begun a competitive procurement process to select a private operator to relaunch and manage a year-round, more frequent ferry connection between downtown St. Petersburg and downtown Tampa.

On August 5th, PSTA issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to solicit interested operators, with submissions due by Thursday, August 28th.

The new RFP follows Hillsborough County’s recent decision to terminate its contract with the previous Cross Bay Ferry operator, HMS Ferries, after the company proposed replacing the current vessel with a slower one that would extend the one-way trip from 50 minutes to more than 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.

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YES for Greenlight!

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Pinellas County is Florida's densest county with over 920,000 people crammed into 280 square miles. It averages out to around 3,274 people per square mile. Why is this important? Because Pinellas County has simply run out of room. There is very little  land left to be developed, so the main source of future growth has to come from redevelopment.  

St. Petersburg, with nearly 4,000 people per square mile, anchors Pinellas County with close to a quarter of a million residents. Like Pinellas County, St. Petersburg is also built-out. There is little to no room left to build new roads or expand our highways. Therefore increasing density and mass transit are the only way to responsibly continue to grow.

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