Annapolis leads Chesapeake Bay ferry initiative with plans for 2 routes

Jack Wilson may have summed up the goal of a proposed Chesapeake Bay ferry network with the final words of an hourlong discussion Thursday in Ocean City.

The Queen Anne’s County commissioner has been deeply involved in a 20-month study of the idea, and Wilson wanted to build on the high excitement for what would be a flashy, $18 million startup investment in the state’s tourism economy.

So he stood before the standing-room-only crowd, looking as serious as you can in a cherry red polo shirt in a town that smells like fried dough and sunscreen, and asked if everyone secretly wanted the same thing.

“Is anyone else thinking pub crawl via ferry?”

It’s the Maryland Association of Counties conference at the beach. What did you expect?

It took me 2 1/2 hours to drive from Annapolis to the Roland Powell Convention Center, where Wilson and representatives of four other counties were finally ready to discuss a possible ferry service connecting people — not cars — with their Chesapeake Bay towns and counties.

“It’s feasible,” said Kristen Pironis, executive director of Visit Annapolis. “That’s really exciting for us, right? But there’s a pretty narrow path forward. It’s not like turning on a switch and you’re going to have ferries across the bay.”

That narrow path — a narrow channel since we’re talking about boats — starts in Annapolis.

Some of the money and initiative needed to buy ferries, create stations and build the public-private entity to run the ferries would have to come from the state government, or at least through it in the form of grants.

Although Baltimore would be the biggest destination on the proposed base route, and it would link waterfront towns in five counties, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County are clearly driving this boat.

Last fall, Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley unveiled a proposed maritime welcome center on the harbor as part of a $100 million public works project aimed at protecting the historic downtown from climate-change-driven flooding.

County Executive Steuart Pittman told Politico in October that, if the boats capable of supporting high-speed ferries were available today, his administration would buy them.

“Getting back and forth between Annapolis and Baltimore City on a ferry would be faster than driving in a car on the roads — and it would be a whole lot more fun,” he said.

His administration in Annapolis followed up in June. The Anne Arundel County Transportation Department applied for a federal grant to develop a $9 million ferry system linking Annapolis, Baltimore and a historic ferry station on Kent Island.

And this week Buckley’s office called for design-and-build proposals for two battery-powered ferries capable of carrying 15 passengers and their bicycles across the harbor between the welcome center and Eastport — making it easier for visitors to use downtown parking garages when visiting the neighborhood’s burgeoning bar and restaurant scene.

“City Dock is critical to the success of this, for sure,” said Pironis, whose tourism agency is funded by city and county hotel taxes. “Because we’re centrally located, because of what we are right now.”

She looks at the largest public works project in Annapolis history and sees the potential to open the city more widely to the Chesapeake Bay.

“I can’t help but think about the revitalization and think about what could be.”

A year ago, Pironis and Clint Sterling, her counterpart in Somerset County, were at MACO and started talking about the idea of a ferry network connecting bay communities as a tourism initiative. It’s long been considered impractical as a daily transportation solution in congested Central Maryland.

Financial support followed from five counties: Anne Arundel, Somerset, Queen Anne’s, Calvert and St. Mary’s. Others expressed interest in being considered as destinations.

Cambridge Systematics, a consultant based in Massachusetts, spent months studying which communities could support a network, what destinations would draw people, and how successful a ferry system might be.

At one point, Pironis, Wilson and others on the committee leading the effort visited 35 potential sites in a five-day trip via boat and car.

The result, a closely guarded secret until Thursday’s release, was a projection that up to 50,000 people a year would get on a ferry to destinations several hours away on the bay and pay fares that work out to about $10 an hour.

It could generate about $2.5 million a year from ticket sales on a base route connecting 11 towns and cities. It would lose that much the first year but germinate another $2.5 million a year in local tourism spending. The network would create about 116 jobs, and more as communities hire for new restaurant, hotel and retail jobs.

What might happen next is what advocates are excited about. A ferry could bring more people to historic and cultural sites in places such as Crisfield and St. Mary’s City that face obstacles in attracting visitors because they are remote.

Queen Anne’s County wants ferry stations at Matapeake State Park, the historic ferry landing and a new heritage center. So what would people do besides admire ducks and geese or a wet T-shirt contest at a dock bar on Kent Narrows?

“This system will basically drop people off in Queen Anne’s County, and they will basically be stuck for two days,” said Wilson, the county commissioner. “We will find plenty of things for them to spend their money on.”

The study examined technical details. Ferries could be electric, like the ones planned in Annapolis, diesel or hybrid. They could carry crowds ranging from about 50 to 150. They could be catamarans or hydrofoils, which would ease hourslong trips on the sometimes choppy bay.

Yet people who travel the bay know navigating it can be a challenge.

Renee Mehl, deputy director of the Naval Academy Sailing Center, leads spring and summer circumnavigation around the Delmarva Peninsula by midshipmen. It is a serious sea voyage.

The academy uses the trips to train sailing teams for offshore racing and leadership aboard small boats. Parts of the route are congested with commercial and recreational traffic, and they contain tricky channels and obstacles hidden underwater.

“You have to keep watch,” Mehl said.

Pironis said her group has spoken with the handful of small commercial ferry and charter companies operating on the same routes. She said there is curiosity but also doubt.

That’s true at Watermark Cruises in Annapolis, which runs a few trips to St. Michael’s every summer. CEO Jake Iversen sees the public excitement about the idea.

“It just makes me wonder how much of that public really just thinks it’s a cool idea and how much would actually use it?” he said. “Is it a one-and-done or maybe once a year, which ... wouldn’t bring in enough revenue for it to really take off.”

As much information as there was in Thursday’s presentation, there were gaps.

The consortium of counties has to find advocates for the idea in each of the communities, from government, the private sector and the public.

Anne Arundel and the other counties were represented at the meeting, but Baltimore was not. Pironis said the city has expressed interest, just no commitment yet.

Future routes connecting Annapolis and cities in Virginia and Washington, D.C., via the Potomac River are possible.

Maybe, one day, I won’t have to spend 2 1/2 hours on the road if I want to go to Ocean City.

“I would say that, while they’re not on the build-out at this point, it doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a next step,” Pironis said.