The Winthrop Town Council has expressed its frustration with MassDOT and the MBTA over the operation of the Winthrop ferry service.
Tuesday night, the council approved sending a letter to MassDOT Secretary Monica Tibbets-Nutt and MBTA Executive Director Phillip Eng outlining some of the town’s concerns, including the need to separate the Winthrop service from the Quincy service, and a request to make ferry service a year-round affair.
The councilors also criticized the state and the MBTA for appropriating the Winthrop ferry boat to assist with ferry service in Quincy. Last year, Winthrop entered into a two-year agreement with the MBTA to operate the town’s ferry.
The letter was co-authored by councilors Joseph Aiello and Hannah Belcher.
“We write this letter in frustration with a straight-forward request – please make the Winthrop ferry a permanent service, characterized by direct service to East Boston, South Boston, and Downtown Boston waterfronts,” the council stated in the letter. “
The council also reiterated a past request, made in conjunction with the city of Quincy, to separate the two communities ferry services from each other.
“We were stunned by the MBTA’s unilateral decision this year to take a Winthrop provided boat and gut the service to our community, while favoring Quincy,” the council stated. “Given this, Winthrop ridership has decreased while Quincy’s has increased as would be expected.”
During the Sumner Tunnel closure, the letter states that Winthrop residents have been turned away from the boat as it has reached capacity.
The council also raised concerns about the condition and care of the Valkyrie ferry boat, which was given to the MBTA last year after the town installed two new motors and made other improvements.
“We are disappointed with the performance of the boat and the measures your vendor may have needed to take to keep the boat operating as expected,” the council stated.
The council went on to outline some reasons it believes ferry service for Winthrop should be year-round and affordable for residents, with no more than two hours between trips.
The council stated that the MBTA has a long history of undeserving Winthrop despite the amount of payments the town makes to the T. The limited avenues for people to get in and out of the town was also raised as a concern.
“We must have a ferry because both of our vehicular pathways out of town are one line in each direction, each threatened by climate change and each unable to be expanded,” the council stated in the letter.
The council also stated that the ferries can help act as a mitigation measure to public safety challenges in the town posed by the MWRA and Massport, and that Winthrop is a densely populated environmental justice community.
“Let us be clear – we want and need the T to invest in our services,” the letter continues. “We need commitment, not idle chatter. Send a proposal for calendar year 2025 that provides for year round, seven day per week service that runs directly into the three Boston ferry stops and not to Quincy at all.”
At Tuesday night’s meeting, several residents spoke in favor of the town’s position on the ferry service and the general lack of service from the MBTA.
“We are historically underserved, and we stand to be even less served if the proposed changes under the bus network redesign come to fruition,” said Julia Wallerce. “That’s not until phase three, it’s unfunded, it may never happen, but the sentiment is there that Winthrop is generally underappreciated by our transit agency. I want to commend Senator Edwards and Representative Turco for getting the T to operate our ferry service, but it sucks, we deserve better, it clearly prioritizes Quincy over Winthrop, which the letter makes very clear, we are a waterlogged community and we need water transit that works.”
Aiello said that if everything went well, there is the possibility that the MBTA could commit to a year-round ferry service, but he said even under the best circumstances, that could still be a year out.
“I think a well-designed, well-priced, frequent service could be successful, seven days a week,” said Aiello. “Part of the concern with year-roundedness, even with the Hingham Ferry, traditionally has been the concern about winters and winter ice. In the last six or seven years, the Hingham ferry has never been obstructed by ice.”
Councillor-at-Large Max Tassinari, who works for MassDOT, recused himself from the vote on sending the letter to MassDOT and the MBTA.