JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — St. John River Ferry riders are not happy after learning that the ferry service will be down for up to 12 weeks.
What was a 5-minute trip between the Mayport and Fort George Ferry landings is now going to take drivers over 30 minutes to get to the same destination.
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Macaela McDonald doesn’t take the St. Johns River Ferry every day but she does take it sometimes.
“It’s going to be an inconvenience for a lot of other people that have to take it to and from work every day,” McDonald said.
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority said the ferry struck the boarding ramp while leaving Mayport Landing on Sunday. While no one was injured, structural inspections of both the bridge and the ferry revealed a need for repairs.
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Once those repairs are complete, JTA said service will resume. But that could take six to 12 weeks.
According to JTA, total passenger ridership for the St. Johns River Ferry for the last calendar year was 432,178. The average daily ridership last year in the month of May was 1,447, and for June last year was 1,455.
“It’s going to be a pain in the butt,” ferry rider Mike Alton said.
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Alton takes the Ferry quite often. With the ferry being suspended, he’s not excited about the extra time he needs to allot for his commute.
“Now you’ve got to go 30 minutes all the way, way down to Egypt in order to jump on the Dames Point, in order come back 30 minutes this way,” Alton said. “That’s just to get to here. So, you’re wasting an hour.”
We’ve reached out to JTA to get an incident report for the ferry hitting the boarding ramp at Mayport. They said they will provide it for us once the investigation is complete.
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