CALVERT COUNTY, Md. – In the summer of 2021, Queen Anne’s County and Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County began discussing the feasibility of providing a Chesapeake Bay passenger ferry service between the two counties, as word spread of the ambitious quest, Somerset and Calvert counties expressed their interest in teaming up to explore this idea. Many counties have joined in and formed the five-county Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry Feasibility Study Consortium.
According to details given by Economic Development of Calvert County, in April of 2022, Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County applied for a Local Technical Assistance grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to conduct a “Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry Feasibility Study” to determine the feasibility of operating a sustainable passenger ferry service connecting key destinations on the Chesapeake Bay.
On September 12, 2022, the consortium was notified that the EDA approved the $125,000 grant for the study. The five members of the Consortium, along with Anne Arundel County and the Maryland Economic Development Corporation, provided the required $125,000 in matching funds via a seven-way split. RFP went out in January, and the project was awarded to Cambridge Systematics in late March.
The Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry Feasibility Study Consortium comprises Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County, Calvert, Somerset, St. Mary’s, and Queen Anne’s counties. Wicomico, Talbot, Kent, and Dorchester Counties submitted letters of support and are working with the consortium.
According to Calvert County Economic Development, the study results should be available by the end of the year. The final report would include recommendations for the next steps and key activities should both portions of the work’s feasibility/technical assistance aspects prove viable.
“The Consortium has been meeting regularly throughout, and we are all excited for the results of the study,” Julie Oberg, the Director of Economic Development of Calvert County, told The BayNet. “The buzz has been positive, and we are excited about this tremendous opportunity. It’s encouraging that so many Maryland destinations are working together on a project like this. A passenger ferry would help build a greater connection to Chesapeake Bay ecology by giving a greater number of area residents and visitors access to North America’s largest estuary. Travel by passenger ferry impacts how individuals see the Bay, its industries, and its cultural and recreational connections. An up-close and personal look isn’t available by car. It would provide experiential travel emphasizing connecting with local people, cultures, food, and music.”
So where will this thing dock? The potential site locations for Calvert County include Chesapeake Beach and Solomons Island. The study will look at 18 different locations throughout the Bay.
In terms of the economy, Oberg sees the vast potential to expand business and tourism in Calvert but is also excited for more opportunities for people to explore everything the area offers.
“The Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry project has the potential to expand business and tourism in our county, enabling residents to experience traveling on the bay and visit other areas in our treasured Chesapeake Bay region that have not been as accessible in the past,” Oberg explained. “The economic impact aspect of the work will evaluate the estimated return on investment and identify the potential impact on jobs in the region to include types of jobs, income/pay, land value, and potential tax revenue. Finally, the economic impact of not pursuing the work will be explored to calculate the loss of opportunities and unrealized future projects. While the economy of both the western and eastern shores of Maryland have been heavily shaped by the seafood and agricultural industries, it has also been heavily shaped by the growing tourism industry. The Chesapeake Bay is a popular attraction for tourists visiting Maryland and Virginia. Increased visitation and visitor expenditures would help attract new businesses and industries to the region and would boost opportunities for attracting a new and skilled workforce. Residents would benefit from a new and economically viable way to access the Bay.”
We want to clarify that this is not set in stone just yet. Nonetheless, this is still a pretty exciting endeavor that is being explored.
So what do you think of this? Is this something you are looking forward to?
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Will this ferry vut down the traffic backups on the bridge and backroads? Local residents have trouble getting out of their own driveways when tourists take the back roads to avoid the traffic on route 50.
We definitely need a ferry service, better yet, a bridge, to connect the Eastern and Western shore. But, it needs to be closer to the Crisfield area. It is absolutely ridiculous that anyone living in the Salisbury area has to travel two and a half hours North, or two and a half hours South, just to get off of this peninsula. There is no excuse for that!
I remember as a kid getting on the Baybelle and going across the bay to talchester,Chestertown and I don’t remember the other place but the ferry was full my family would go for a weeks vacation sometimes it was just a weekend but what a time we had and such memories of fishing the rental rubber boats that my family would rent and we had such fun evenings at the hotel of games music dancing and total relaxation for our parents it is sad today for the young people not to have this experience of coming out of Baltimore travel across the bay and feel and smell the ocean..how I miss those days…
The Cape May /Lewes Ferry could be a model for the proposed ferry. A bus shuttle from the Eastern shore ferry dock could transport beach goers to the Atlantic Ocean for a car free excursion!