By Michael Setty

The right location, the right people, a dedicated group of riders, and a long series of significant events came together during the past fifteen years, resulting in the creation of the most dynamic ferry service on San Francisco Bay today. From a modest beginning in 1986, ferry service between Vallejo and San Francisco has grown to today’s highly successful Vallejo Baylink.

Currently, two state-of-the-art 35-knot, 301-passenger catamarans (the M/V Intintoli and M/V Mare Island) provide eleven round trip sailings per day between Vallejo and San Francisco. Nonetheless our ferries are commonly crowded beyond capacity, routinely bumping passengers onto supplemental buses. In all, Baylink served 535,000 passengers during 1998, the first full year of expanded operation. Yet about 800,000 passengers are predicted for 2001 and more than a million riders are projected for 2004, after Baylink places a 3rd ferryboat into regular weekday operation. According to Vallejo’s Transportation Superintendent Pam Belchamber, "The ultimate test of a transit system is its patronage. There is no doubt that Baylink’s overwhelming success has put Vallejo on the Bay Area transit map."

The overwhelming success of Baylink has been one of the factors inspiring the recent creation of the Bay Area Water Transit Authority (WTA). Baylink has also integrated two of the most important functions of municipal government in Vallejo – transportation and economic development. Vallejo’s Mayor Anthony "Tony" Intintoli, who also serves on the WTA board, has a broad vision of reuniting the city’s downtown and waterfront areas together, as they were before the redevelopment programs of the 1960s. He would extend the city’s major east-west streets to the waterfront and bring unity to the city’s central core. So, this fall, Georgia Street will be extended and will terminate directly in front of the Ferry Terminal, reuniting the waterfront and downtown areas.

Mayor Intintoli strongly believes that Baylink ferries have already enhanced economic development of Vallejo. The ferries have been "a statement of faith in the city." So, "I can’t over-estimate the significance of having the ferry service in Vallejo remain at its current location right next to downtown. There are people who have moved to Vallejo from San Francisco, and now commute daily by walking to the ferries from their homes. As outlined in our Downtown/Waterfront Master Plan, the ferries support our goals of reconnecting downtown to the waterfront, mixing private investment/redevelopment opportunities with waterfront open space, and strengthening Vallejo’s identity through our diverse cultural and maritime heritage, as well as the North Bay’s unique ecological resources."