Jan. 14, 2019 By Nathaly Pesantez

The NYC Ferry system is set to undergo a significant expansion in coming months, with the Astoria route, connecting the western Queens neighborhood to Wall Street, getting a new stop at the Brooklyn Navy Yard this spring.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, in his State of the City address delivered last week, announced that the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be added as a stop along the route in May, bringing the total number of stops on the line to six.

The additional stop comes as the Navy Yard itself, home to tech, design and other manufacturing jobs, is undergoing a transformative expansion, expecting to more than double its onsite workforce by 2020.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard stop will add about five minutes to the route from start to finish, bringing total travel time to about 45 minutes.

The Astoria route launched in the summer of 2017, and is one of five existing routes connecting riders to places like 34th Street in Manhattan, the Rockaways, North Brooklyn, Long Island City and the Bronx.

Other lines set to see changes include the Soundview Route, with a new landing in Throggs Neck/Ferry Point Park launching in 2021, and the South Brooklyn Route, which will be reconfigured to start at Sunset Park rather than Bay Ridge. The latter, meanwhile, will be added to the upcoming Coney Island Route, launching in 2021.

In another surprise announcement, a route will be created between St. George on Staten Island and Midtown West, to start operations in 2020.

The expansion follows a New York City Economic Development Corporation feasibility study that kicked off in 2018 to determine whether NYC Ferry could expand. That same year, the city announced a $300 million investment toward the ferry system over the next five years.

“As New Yorkers take to the water to get around our city more than ever before, we will look forward to improving the NYC Ferry system to make it better than ever,” Mayor de Blasio said in a statement.