Biggest ferry of its kind will carry thousands of NJ commuters

It’s one for the record books.

SeaStreak, the ferry commuter service between Monmouth County and New York City, welcomes the largest high-speed passenger catamaran in the nation to Atlantic Highlands. It has almost 20% more passenger capacity than its smaller cousins, a quieter ride by stronger insulation in the jet and engine compartments, higher-tech windows to minimize solar load and give a fog-free commute.

Plus it’s designed where passengers can spread out with more room, ideal in these times when some are still concerned with social distancing. It also offers more versatility in loading passengers at different angles due to a modified bow radius.

Here’s where I do my best Michael Keaton saying, “Yeah 220, 221, whatever it takes.” But it sounds impressive!

For sure impressive is this new vessel’s name.

Courageous.

SeaStreak’s Vice-President James D. Barker explains, “The name Courageous is a tribute to the brave men and women who continued to commute to NYC at a time of great uncertainty to provide critical aid for those in need. During the darkest period of the pandemic from April-May of 2020, we saw our ridership drop to about 50-100 outbound riders (a)day. The majority of the riders during this time were medical workers who were treating patients in NYC.”

Barker says the pandemic created huge losses for the company which they’ve tried to somewhat make up for in recreational ventures. He said they added things like Hudson River cruises and holiday Santa cruises to augment business. They’ve been popular but he adds, “our core business is still commuting and leisure can only do so much to offset our losses in that area.”

So it was actually pretty courageous of them to see the Courageous project through to the end considering it cost $18 million. Let’s hope New Jersey commuters embrace it.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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