This week, we met with the Chair of the Redwood City Port Commission, Lorianna Kastrop, for an update on bringing a public ferry terminal to Redwood City.

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The Redwood City ferry terminal project picked up steam earlier this year, when State Assemblymember, Kevin Mullin, allocated $5 million of the state budget surplus towards building a commuter ferry terminal in Redwood City. According to Kastrop, these state funds, in addition to tax money already raised for the project by San Mateo County, total over $20 million, which should be enough to fund the construction of the ferry terminal, as well as the necessary land site infrastructure improvements. The ferries themselves would cost about another $16m each, which Kastrop says would be funded through state grants.

The ferry terminal would have commuter routes that run from Redwood City to both San Francisco and Oakland. Kastrop says that a primary concern for the RWC terminal’s viability as a commuter option is what she calls “the first and last mile” – that is, the distance you need to cover to get to and from the terminal. There are not currently any great public transit options from downtown Redwood City to and from the Port, so that would need to be remedied in order for the project to be feasible. To that end, Kastrop says that SamTrans has already offered to run bus routes to the port, and they would improve bike lanes to and from downtown.

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So what are the next steps? Well, as you could probably guess, having the money doesn’t mean we can break ground on the project tomorrow. There is still a fair amount of red tape that needs to be cleared, as there are 4 separate agencies with jurisdiction over the project. Like any other major construction/development project, an environmental impact report will need to be prepared and reviewed, which can takes years in itself. For Kastrop’s part, she is optimistic that the project can be completed in a 5-7 year timeline.

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There is still a long way to go on this, but we are very excited that the vision for a Redwood City commuter ferry terminal is starting to come into focus. If you have any questions for Port Commission Chair, Lorianna Kastrop, you can reach out to her directly at: lkastrop@redwoodcityport.com