January is the cruelest month for the Jacksonville water taxi.
Colder weather and a lack of events often mean lower ridership numbers. But a sewer rehabilitation project at the Jacksonville Landing has made ridership plummet by more than 30 percent from January 2015.
Four days didn’t have a single rider. Single-digit days weren’t uncommon.
In all, just 2,432 people rode — numbers buoyed by New Year’s Day (201), the Jan. 2 TaxSlayer Bowl (1,667) and Saturday’s Carrie Underwood concert (138).
The sewer project closed the stretch of the Riverwalk that includes the service’s main stop and shifted it to near the Times-Union Center. The next closest is at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront, on the other side of the Main Street Bridge.
“That’s been a little bit problematic,” said Heather Surface, a partner with Lakeshore Marine Services that operates the service.
And before that, the Southbank Riverwalk renovations wiped out several stops in 2014 until the walkway reopened in February 2015.
Yet, despite the setbacks, Surface says things have been going well since Lakeshore took over the service in August 2014 on a temporary deal.
The company secured a long-term agreement with the city until 2020 and through its public-private partnership has secured $201,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to help sustain operations.
That’s assisted by city funds of up to $120,000. For example, the January report shows more than $47,000 in city dollars from July-December 2016.
Year-over-year numbers have seen ebbs and flows, but December figures — the last before Landing construction — showed an almost 1,200 increase.
Surface wants to see more improvements made.
To help the current issue, she is asking the city to adjust weekday hours to allow service to start later in the day and offer longer tours Tuesday through Thursday. Such riders, she said, are leisure passengers who often are staying Downtown.
She has an idea that would increase ridership, but needs buy-in from area hotels: a small fee tagged onto hotel room charges that would go toward the service, much like a parking or resort fee. In return, hotel guests would receive free rides while staying at the hotel.
Surface said it’s worked in cities like Savannah when the service was privatized. She’s working with a former Savannah water taxi official to develop the idea.
More stops also would mean more riders. She has had discussions with business owners in the booming Brooklyn area about the idea.
Other upcoming Southbank developments like The District – Life Well Lived and the 300-apartment Broadstone Riverhouse would help.
The Downtown Investment Authority also is trying to ensure the service has assistance.
Chair Jim Bailey, publisher of the Daily Record, has tapped new member Ron Moody to serve as head of a new committee that will work with the city’s Parks, Recreations and Community Services Department on oversight of the service.
Moody will meet with officials in the tourism and transportation industry along with city officials and the operators themselves, among others, to hear about possibilities and problems for the Downtown transportation amenity.
From there, the group will meet at least once a quarter to determine what’s working and what isn’t, with the goal to eliminate obstacles for the water taxi to succeed.
Surface said she’s glad DIA is taking a role and can help review the issues and potential for the service in its current state.
“Right now, with the exception of Jaguars games, it’s mainly supported by visitors,” she said. “I’d like to see a transition where it benefits residents and all people of Jacksonville.”
Here’s a look at ridership numbers for the Jacksonville Water Taxi. The current operators took control in August 2014. Numbers for 2013 and six months of 2014 were not available because the previous operator did not log ridership.
| 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | |
| January | 6,480 | n/a | 3,676 |
| February | 6,326 | n/a | 1,773 |
| March | 7,230 | n/a | 4,640 |
| April | 8,209 | n/a | 9,273 |
| May | 11,524 | n/a | 5,446 |
| June | 7,869 | n/a | 6,108 |
| July | 13,285 | n/a | 4,491 |
| August | 8,684 | 4,824 | 4,395 |
| September | 11,008 | 3,138 | 5,163 |
| October | 10,824 | 9,523 | 9,227 |
| November | 6,774 | 5,775 | 4,417 |
| December | 9,384 | 3,761 | 4,938 |
| Total | 109,609 | 27,021 | 65,562 |
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