Water Taxi Ending Services

[fieldafm]

Also wonder if the high speed river boat racing will affect those operations that weekend.

Downtown is a no wake zone. Don't see much powerboating between the bridges. Damn those manatees! 

There is a P1 SuperStock powerboat race on the river June 7-8.
That would not affect the water taxi as the race is not being held downtown. The main spectator area will be at Memorial Park.

[ChriswUfGator]

The city continues to have a penchant for putting out contracts and RFPs that have no foundation in reality. What operator is going to come into this situation, where it was barely economical to begin with, and agree to have that much seating capacity (50%+ of which will be unused at any given time) and that many boats running, e.g. basically oversupply the market at their own expense simply to meet the demands of the contract which doesn't subsidize or reimburse them for the arbitrary expense COJ has built into it? They're not going to get any bids at all, including by the existing operator, and the result predictably is no water taxi.

This is exactly like that Hemming Plaza venue management RFP, where they put it out for bid that the bidders had to pay COJ for the right to operate the park, and then COJ got to keep the income from concessions and events. They got one bid, that said we'll think about it if it's the other way around and you pay us $X. COJ rejected it, and nobody else ever bid.

[coredumped]

Also wonder if the high speed river boat racing will affect those operations that weekend.

Downtown is a no wake zone. Don't see much powerboating between the bridges. Damn those manatees! 

There is a P1 SuperStock powerboat race on the river June 7-8.
That would not affect the water taxi as the race is not being held downtown. The main spectator area will be at Memorial Park.

I still don't know how they're going to powerboat there, the law is 25MPH from Main Street to Charter point and then idle from the channel to the shore:
http://www.myfwc.com/media/415208/Manatee_duvalMPZ.pdf [PDF warning]

Did someone give the wildlife ample notice?

[urbanlibertarian]

The sad thing here is that this is pretty predictable.  There was steep and vigorous private competition for the water taxi market with several operators on the river at all times.

The city 'improved' things by taking over the lisence to be a water taxi company and forcing all of them to bid on the contract, cutting out private competition and establishing a single service.

It doesn't seem to have occurred to them that this is the outcome.

What happens when the one guy that you've designed things for closes?

Exactly, Stephen.  Open it up to anyone who complies with federal and state regs.  We might have to make sure there's not a turf war on our docks but other than that let the market sort it out.

[Josh]

Also wonder if the high speed river boat racing will affect those operations that weekend.

Downtown is a no wake zone. Don't see much powerboating between the bridges. Damn those manatees! 

There is a P1 SuperStock powerboat race on the river June 7-8.
That would not affect the water taxi as the race is not being held downtown. The main spectator area will be at Memorial Park.

I still don't know how they're going to powerboat there, the law is 25MPH from Main Street to Charter point and then idle from the channel to the shore:
http://www.myfwc.com/media/415208/Manatee_duvalMPZ.pdf [PDF warning]

Did someone give the wildlife ample notice?

Memorial Park, not Metropolitan Park

[coredumped]

Memorial Park, not Metropolitan Park

DOH! Thanks for the correction! That's better, much more room, I wonder if they'll have boat parking out there.

[thelakelander]

The sad thing here is that this is pretty predictable.  There was steep and vigorous private competition for the water taxi market with several operators on the river at all times.

The city 'improved' things by taking over the lisence to be a water taxi company and forcing all of them to bid on the contract, cutting out private competition and establishing a single service.

It doesn't seem to have occurred to them that this is the outcome.

What happens when the one guy that you've designed things for closes?

What was the point of limiting the competition?

What would be wrong with letting the free market sort things out by responding to natural demand?

[avonjax]

Water taxi > Mayport Ferry.

Esp with this 6 cents gas tax, it's time to build a simple two lane low 'swinging over the channel' bridge from Mayport to Heckscher instead of wasting money on something for the sake of being 'nostalgic'. 

I can't even respond on what you wrote.

[Jason]

The sad thing here is that this is pretty predictable.  There was steep and vigorous private competition for the water taxi market with several operators on the river at all times.

The city 'improved' things by taking over the lisence to be a water taxi company and forcing all of them to bid on the contract, cutting out private competition and establishing a single service.

It doesn't seem to have occurred to them that this is the outcome.

What happens when the one guy that you've designed things for closes?

What was the point of limiting the competition?

What would be wrong with letting the free market sort things out by responding to natural demand?

It was the one area of economic growth and activity going on in the downtown, it got acrimonious as there was real old fashioned competition finally (which no one had any experience with anymore) and the 'powers that were' simply couldn't sit around on their hands without 'improving' it.

Sounds like it's another case of the "Good 'ol Boys" looking out for a buddy....

[urbanlibertarian]

I think it's more "We must control this because we can."  The urge seems to be irresistable.

[TheCat]

The city is buying 2 water taxis.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/jacksonville-water-taxi-service-ending/26347578

And with a slew of events happening downtown this weekend, many at the same time, the city began looking for an emergency solution.

The result: purchase two water taxis as a short-term solution. The city said it will buy a 102-seat boat and a 50-seat boat, with the long-term goal of selling them when it hires a new contractor.

In the meantime, the city said the price to ride won't change, but the routes will, depending on what works best.

Jacksonville Water Taxi's contract with the city is expiring, and last month the city rejected its bid for a new long-term contract.

"We have been honored to provide marine transportation services to the city of Jacksonville and hoped we would be afforded the opportunity to continue providing such vital transportation services," said Michael McDaniel, president and chief executive officer of Jacksonville Water Taxi. "It has been our privilege to serve the city, its residents, visitors and football fans; however, the rejection of our bid to continue service coupled with the expiration of our prior contract has left us with no option other than to initiate the withdrawal of our vessels."

Read the termination letter from the last water taxi contractor:

http://www.news4jax.com/blob/view/-/26347590/data/1/-/bkpl9xz/-/Jacksonville-Water-Taxi-termination-notice.pdf

[edjax]

Wow, this administration knows no bounds with regard to incompetence.  Oh yea, broke city buys two boats. I see Skipper Brown manning one of them Saturday with photographers only on the initial run.

[goldy21]

So...how can we find out the routes for the taxis this weekend? We'd really like to use one to get to the soccer game.

[edjax]

I would keep googling it as they should post before 11:00 am Saturday as that is when they take over operations.  My guess would be The Landing and a couple of spots on the Southbank, Firendship Park perhaps.

I would catch it early though as they are going to have half the normal capacity.

[IrvAdams]

Unbelievable. I am totally floored by how this could possible happen. A contractor in place, seemingly ready to be very flexible in accommodating the city's interests and serving the public. What was the issue? Things like this are so aggravating.

Is it too late to try and work a last-minute deal with the existing company?