RIPTA: No Newport ferry service in 2010

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Public Transit Authority said Tuesday it will not offer a ferry service between Providence and Newport this summer.

RIPTA said it had been seeking a private firm to run the ferry service since Jan. 5 but had received no response.

The agency’s budget did not include money to subsidize the Providence-Newport water route, although RIPTA said it would have provided a docking facility, parking, ticketing office, trolley connections to the docking facility, restrooms and marketing support.

The Providence-Newport ferry service ran each summer from June 2000 through 2008, paid for by the U.S. Department of Transportation. But when federal funding ended, so did the service.

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In its most successful season, about 48,000 passengers traveled up and down Narragansett Bay on the ferry. RIPTA said interest in the service grew each year.

Additional information is available at ripta.com.

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