Larger ferry boats during L train shutdown

Brooklyn residents who want to travel by water during the L train shutdown will now have bigger boats.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney announced earlier this week that both the MTA and EDC have agreed to enter a contract with NY Waterways to provide ferries with more capacity.

Instead of boats that hold 149 passengers, they will use ferries that can hold 240 passengers each.

Additionally, NY Waterways will be required to have two ferries in constant operation, with a third boat crew ready to go if needed.

So what does this mean? Maloney’s office says each trip is expected to take abut 5.5 minutes from pier to pier, with 8 ferry trips per hour at peak times.

In addition to express buses, bicycling and additional train capacity on other lines, pols hope this will be *somewhat* enough to mitigate the effects of the L train closure.