89 SF Bay Ferry’s fleet serves routes connecting the cities of Alameda, Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco, South San Francisco and Vallejo investment. “Maintaining our industryleading 98 per cent customer experience rating is incredibly important,” he says. “It’s critical we make the transition to zero-emission vessels while also maintaining, or improving, our service. “Although these will be the first electric vessels in the USA, we have watched other operators around the world benefit from lower operating and maintenance costs. Reinvesting those savings into the system with enhanced amenities and more services is another benefit we expect from our programme.” While Murphy is committed to fleet renewal, he notes that inflationary pressures, evolving fuel tariffs and fuel price volatility in the USA make it challenging for public transit operators to secure reliable funding for such projects. “Public subsidies designed to keep services like ours affordable and accessible to the broader community aren’t keeping up with inflation,” he explains. “Some of those same pressures are affecting our capital programme. The cost of vessel construction is already higher in the USA than anywhere else in the world, and it’s continuing to increase as domestic suppliers raise prices to match the impact of new tariffs.” Limited US shipbuilding capacity is also driving these costs, but there has been “positive attention on that front”, says Murphy. “A renewed federal focus on expanding US shipbuilding presents an opportunity to create more competition in the domestic market and hopefully better align the costs with the rest of the world.” To support the expansion of the region’s shipbuilding capacity, SF Bay Ferry has partnered with regional workforce development experts and launched the Working Waterfront Coalition. “The group is training the next generation of maritime workers, and specifically giving them the expertise they need to work on our new electric fleet,” says Murphy. “Several cohorts of new workers have already graduated, but more will be needed to achieve the Bay Area’s most critical shipbuilding ambitions. A new proposal would create one of the largest shipyards in the world in the Bay Area as part of a new community called California Forever, which would offer tremendous benefits for us and the national maritime industry.” Murphy is also drawing on global expertise to shape SF Bay Ferry’s long-term strategy, collaborating with ferry operators around the world in his role as vice chairman of global association Interferry. “Interferry has been such an amazing resource for us,” he says. “Our decarbonisation programme is built on a foundation of technologies, best practices and industry experience that we wouldn’t have discovered without Interferry’s network of suppliers and fellow operators. Now, we’re sharing our experience with that same network, so the next generation of zero-emission vessels are even better. Participating in that peer-to-peer exchange and contributing to the industry’s progress makes my involvement with the board much more gratifying.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=