Cross-Bay Ferry ridership up 36% year over year
January 8, 2020 - The Cross-Bay Ferry is well on pace to eclipse last year's record ridership of nearly 53,000 riders. Ferry ridership in December 2019 was nearly 50 percent higher than in December 2018, a news release said, and overall, the ferry has seen a 36 percent increase in ridership year-over-year in the first two months of the seasons. The ferry carried 22,510 passengers in November and December 2019, compared to 16,566 in the same months in 2018. A move back to the Tampa Convention Center gets some of the credit for the increase, because it allows HMS Ferries to operate free from conflicts with cruise ships, which had limited its operations in previous years, according to the news release.