Albany's $14 Million Completes Fast Ferry Deal

By Bud Lowell

Albany, NY – A 14-million dollar aid package negotiated in Albany has completed the funding needed for the long-planned Rochester to Toronto fast ferry project.

State and Rochester officials announced the agreement simultaneously in Albany and Rochester. City officials say it means the first high-speed ferry should make the two hour crossing from Toronto to Rochester next summer.

The agreement gives ferry promoter Dominic DeLucia and his Canadian American Transportation Systems company a 6-point-6 million dollar loan from the state infrastructure development bank, plus a 7-point-4 million dollar grant.

Equal shares of the grant money will be provided by the governor's office, the state senate and the state assembly.

Agreement on the funding package was reached Monday afternoon in Albany after day-long talks between DeLucia, Rochester and state officials.

Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson says the money will allow Canadian American, which is known as CATS, to begin construction of its first ferryboat at an Australian shipyard.

The high-speed catamaran ferry will function as a water-born bridge for cars and people, saving hours over the drive around Lake Ontario from western New York to the Toronto region.

The 300 foot ship will make three round trips per day, and will be able to carry 800 passengers and 200 cars per trip.

CATS is expected to begin service next year. A second ship will be added if traffic develops as expected. Building, launching and fitting out each vessel will cost about 55 million dollars.

State officials say the fast ferry service will provide about 200 full time jobs in Rochester to start, and has the potential to produce 15-hundred more across the region as travel picks up between Rochester and Canada.

The City of Rochester has pledged more than a million dollars of its own funding to the ferry project, along with other funds from the state and Monroe County.

Much of the local funding is going to the renovation of the Port of Rochester in Charlotte, where a former warehouse will be renovated as the ferry terminal.

Rochester and Monroe County have also invested millions on a general upgrade of the Charlotte area. Direct investment there plus private development is expected to amount to 145-million dollars over the next seven years.

Deputy Rochester Mayor Jeff Carlson says Toronto city officials have agreed to a temporary ferry terminal for now. He says they've added a permanent terminal at Ontario Place to their plans for a major redevelopment of the Toronto Harbor. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver joined Rochester and Monroe County officials on a lobbying trip to Toronto in July to secure the Canadian cooperation.

Carlson says construction of the Rochester ferry terminal has to begin "now."

20-million dollars for the Rochester terminal is already in hand in local, federal and state money.