Ferry Service Could Become Victim Of DRPA Budget Cuts

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - This is, in effect, D-day for the DRPA. Commissioners of the Delaware River Port Authority must approve their annual budget today, which could include some serious cuts and maybe, just maybe, a break for commuters.
The agency's been flirting for weeks now with the idea of putting off increasing the price to ride their four bridges and PATCO. Today is the deadline to act on the rail side. Otherwise, those fares go up an average 10% come January 1st. The dollar toll increase on the bridges is scheduled in July and commissioners are looking to cut wherever they can.
The latest idea: get rid of the ferry that runs between Penn's Landing and Camden's waterfront. That's a bad idea, according to Tom Corcoran who heads the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation.
Corcoran says, "The ferry really has been one of the unifying themes that have tied the two waterfronts together for the last 20 years and it would be a tremendous loss if that service were to discontinue."
But profits are small and short term capital needs to top $700 thousand.
Reported by David Madden, KYW Newsradio