New Ferry Service Begins From Berkeley To San Francisco
BERKELEY (KCBS) – For the first time in more than a decade, a new ferry route has been added to the East Bay commute, from Berkeley to San Francisco.
Currently, the service operated by Tideline is only running on Fridays.
"And there's no traffic, there's no Sig-alerts, and especially on a day like today one of the more glorious rides," Nathan Nayman of Tideline told KCBS.
Tideline received its certificate to operate from the California Public Utilities Commission and the city of Berkeley. The boat leaves from the Berkeley Marina K gate at 7:30 and 8:30 and arrives a half hour later at the Ferry Building. The cost is $8.
"Our goal really is to complement the existing the water ferry system and go to places where ferries are not going to right now. Hopefully we'll be able to go up to Napa at some point," Nayman said.
Tideline is also offering a successful daily private ferry service from Richmond which requires pre-booking. With demand, the company hopes service to and from Berkeley will expand.
Ridership on the two major ferry services on San Francisco Bay - Golden Gate Ferry and San Francisco Bay Ferry - has surged more than 70 percent over the last four years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
