Dear Seastreak Rider,
As we ride the last wave of 2024, we’d like to highlight a couple key accomplishments made this year, as well as preview investments we plan to make in 2025.
Our engineering team has successfully completed its 12-year project to refit Seastreak’s four 505-passenger vessels with Tier 3 Rolls Royce S4-71 waterjets. This project has and will continue to reduce Seastreak’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by 12,500 tons per vessel – the equivalent of eliminating 20 tractor trailers driving 63,000 miles per year from our roads. The refit vessels are lighter, more reliable, and slightly faster. Our riders are therefore experiencing fewer service disruptions while cruising on a more modern fleet. The team completed the refit of the Seastreak Highlands in August of 2024, and has now assigned an additional 505 vessel to service the Belford route.
We understand that our riders have come to rely on and even prefer Seastreak’s largest vessels, the Commodore and Courageous. These vessels, built from the ground up for the New Jersey/Manhattan route with the Seastreak commuter in mind, have performed as the largest and most comfortable high speed passenger ferries in the United States since their releases in 2018 and 2021. These two vessels have been Seastreak’s workhorses since their introductions, running at the highest frequency of all vessels. But like all commercial vessels, routine inspections and maintenance must be completed –especially due to their high utilization. Currently, the Commodore is in drydock completing routine USCG inspection and we expect to have her rejoin the fleet before the Holidays.
One goal of Seastreak’s management for 2024 was to do a better job communicating delays and service disruptions. We implemented a new text/email alert tool and improved communications between crews and office staff. I believe that we have made great improvements with speed and frequency over the last year but feel that we can do even better. In 2025 we plan to provide timely information to riders when boats will be out for extended periods –providing estimates, project updates, etc. so riders can best plan their commute.
Now on to everyone’s favorite topic, digital ticketing. Those who were riding this week may have spotted scanning pedestals being tested while boarding. We’re happy to announce that we are very close to launching Phase 1 of this project, which will make one-way and round-trip tickets available for purchase online. Phase 2 is expected to come in late January and will digitize commuter ticket books, giving commuters the ability to scan an RFID card for boarding and reload that card from a self-managed profile (think ski mountain ticketing). We thank our riders for their continued patience regarding this project. Finding a digital ticketing system that works for Seastreak has been a process. We’ve come to understand that Seastreak’s loading process is unique. We are loading the highest-capacity commuter vessels in the country in a very short amount of time. Speed of throughput has been a priority, and we are confident that the solution delivered will make the boarding process easier for all involved. Look out for more information on this subject in the coming weeks.
Seastreak’s buildout of the new customer waiting area and ticketing office in Atlantic Highlands is well underway. The space is located directly next to Sissy’s and beneath On The Deck Restaurant. Customers will now have access to a comfortable climate-controlled waiting area with restrooms and charging stations. A wall of screens showing a live camera feed of the dock in Atlantic Highlands will be displayed so customers know when the next boat is arriving. We’re excited about this project and are hopeful that we’ll be able to open its doors in late January.
I’d like to close with saying thank you to those who rely on our service. We’re continuing to make investments in our ferry fleet, technology and shoreside infrastructure to make your commute as safe and reliable as it can possibly be. Wishing a happy holiday season to you and your families.
Sincerely,
James A. Barker
