City residents are on board with a plan to test out a new ferry service between Quincy's Squantum Point Park and Boston.

City residents are on board with a plan to test out a new ferry service between Quincy’s Squantum Point Park and Boston.

About 200 people jam-packed a meeting room in Marina Bay on Thursday night to learn more about the service, which is expected to start Aug. 1 and run 90 days. The town of Winthrop, which operates its own ferry service with a 73-seat boat, will add Quincy to its routes that stop in Rowe’s Wharf and Spectacle Island.

“I think it’s a great idea. I hope it’s successful,” Squantum resident Bernard DiBuduo said.

“Keep doing what you’re doing,” Marina Bay resident Gerri Shea said to city and state officials, who ultimately want to bring permanent ferry service to Quincy.

Accompanying the test-run of the ferry service will be a new pay-to-park system at Squantum Point Park, which is owned by the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation. Matthew Sisk, the agency’s deputy commissioner, said the agency was looking for new ways to increase revenue and saw a good opportunity with the park’s 885-space parking lot, located next to the tourist-friendly Marina Bay boardwalk and a new 352- unit apartment complex being built on the west end of the boardwalk.

The cost to park will be $1.25 per hour with a maximum charge of $5. Parking will be free for any time under an hour, to accommodate people who use the park for recreational purposes like walking their dogs.

Stephanie Powers, a Quincy resident who walks her dog at the 50-acre park, told officials she supports the ferry plan as long as "we're still conserving that amazing piece of land and making sure people can access it." Sisk said the ferry plan and pay-to-park system won't involve removing any trees or cutting into the park.

Winthrop’s ferry service will make stops in Quincy through the end of October, but Tanji Cifuni, Winthrop’s ferry coordinator, said the town would be willing to extend that through November if Quincy was interested. The city hasn’t had ferry service since 2013, when the MBTA closed the terminal at the former Fore River Shipyard.

The ferry will make the following direct trips between Squantum Point Park and Boston on weekdays:

• Depart Quincy at 7:05 a.m., arrive Rowe’s Wharf at 7:25 a.m.

• Depart Quincy at 9:05 a.m., arrive Rowe’s Wharf at 9:30 a.m.

• Depart Quincy at 12:10 p.m., arrive Rowe’s Wharf at 12:35 p.m.

• Depart Rowe’s Wharf at 5:45 p.m., arrive in Quincy at 6:10 p.m.

On weekends:

• Depart Rowe’s Wharf at 10:50 a.m., arrive in Quincy at 11:15 a.m.

• Depart Quincy at 3:30 p.m., arrive Rowe’s Wharf at 3:55 p.m.

• Depart Rowe’s Wharf at 6 p.m., arrive in Quincy at 6:25 p.m.

• Depart Rowe’s Wharf at 8:10 p.m., arrive in Quincy at 8:35 p.m.

• Depart Rowe’s Wharf at 9:45 p.m., arrive in Quincy at 10:05 p.m. (Saturdays only)

The weekend service will also include direct trips between Quincy and Spectacle Island, one of the Boston Harbor Islands that’s a destination for swimming, boating and hiking.

The fare will be $8.50 for a one-way trip, $6.50 for seniors, and free for children under 10. Cifuni encourages ferry riders to buy tickets in advance on the town of Winthrop’s website, though riders can walk on and pay on board the boat.

State Rep. Bruce Ayers and state Sen. John Keenan, both Quincy Democrats, said the 90-day test run will allow officials to gather information about how ferry service at Squantum Point Park would be used. The long-term plan is to build a permanent ferry terminal in and perhaps create a state-subsidized system with stops in Hingham, Salem, Lynn, Winthrop and at Boston’s Logan Airport.

But that plan would require significant funding not only to build the Quincy terminal, but also to extend Commander Shea Boulevard to create an alternative route to the ferry besides Victory Road, a privately-owned street in the Marina Bay residential development.

“We’re trying to keep expectations where they should be,” Keenan said. “It’s exciting, but it’s more exciting in the context of what we hope to build the next few years here in Quincy. We’re on our way.”