A new 190-foot passenger/vehicle ferry for the City of New York’s Trust for Governor’s Island is under construction at the Conrad Shipyard of Morgan City, La.
The vessel, scheduled to enter service in the summer of 2024, was designed by the Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design Group and will be New York City’s first public hybrid-electric ferry, featuring a propulsion system that will reduce air pollution by toggling between zero-emission battery-only power and battery-assisted hybrid with diesel backup.
The battery-assisted mode will allow the new ferry to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 600 tons annually.
Future plans for rapid vessel-charging installation will enable the ferry to operate with zero-emission battery-only propulsion, at which point emissions will drop to nearly zero.
The new – as yet unnamed – ferry will operate between New York City’s Lower Manhattan and Governors Island and replace the diesel-powered Lt. Samuel S. Coursen, the Trust’s current vehicle and passenger ferry, which was commissioned by the U.S. Army in 1956 and has been in continuous use since.
With a capacity of up to 1,200 passengers at a time, the ferry will have a cruising speed of 10 knots and feature modern passenger amenities, including a lower-level ADA-accessible lounge and restrooms on each level.