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he NC Ferry Division this afternoon announced a new set of changes to the Cherry Branch-Minnesott ferry schedule. Staring April 14, there will be 24 runs from each side a day. Currently there are 28. The earlier proposed changes would have reduced the runs to 21 a day from each side.

The cuts announced today amount to about a 15% cutback. The morning schedule was not cut as much as originally proposed.

However, starting April 14, travelers will find a period in mid-late morning when there is a two hour wait on each side of the Neuse. Those who miss the 10:15am ferry from Minnesott Beach, will have to wait til 12:15pm for the next one.

Also being cut back, but not as much as previously suggested, is the Aurora-Bayview ferry across the Pamlico River.

The press release put out by the Ferry Division Tuesday afternoon said that in finalizing the schedule changes it wanted to minimize “inconvenience to commuters”. Knowing this won’t be popular, the Ferry Division says they took into consideration input from citizens. Oriental veterinarian Sherri Hicks provided some of that input in gathering 800 names in a petition to keep the current ferry schedule. Hicks, who commutes across the river every day, made the case for the many other commuters who take the ferries to and from their jobs at Cherry Point near Cherry Branch, and at PCS Phosphate in Aurora.

The Ferry Division says it is “budget constraints and US Coast Guard staffing requirements” that prompts the cutbacks on five of its seven routes which include toll and free ferries.

While the ferries on the inner banks of the Pamlico Sound are seeing their schedules cut, that is not the case for the free ferries on the Outer Banks. The Hatteras-Ocracoke free ferry will not see any changes in its schedule. That ferry leaves Ocracoke and Hatteras every half hour during the summer season and every hour from both shores the rest of the year. Another Outer Banks ferry, the one between Currituck and Knotts Island is also not being cut back.

The ferry division says that it is cutting back on expenses on the Pamlico Sound ferries that go Ocracoke by not adding extra runs in the busier summer season.

You can read the new schedule as it was laid out in the press release this afternoon, by clicking here.

Posted Tuesday March 17, 2009 by Melinda Penkava