News

No Ellis Island Stop, But Ferry Ride Costs the Same

Although Ellis Island has been closed since last October’s Superstorm Sandy, visitors to the national landmark are being charged full price for ferry tickets. The tickets would normally get them access to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, which is on adjacent Liberty Island.

Admission to the landmark park sites are free, but tourists must pay to take the ferry there. The boat trip, which usually makes stops at both Hudson River islands, was $17 before the storm and still is $17.

“I decided to go and take my daughter for $9 and $17 each for my husband and I,” said Tania Valesquez, a New Yorker who was visiting the national park for the first time and expected to tour both islands.

“After I paid, they tell you can [only] go to Liberty,” she said. “If they would’ve told me I couldn’t go to both, then it’s not worth going to just one.”

The website of the National Park Service, which oversees both islands notes that Ellis Island is closed. Park service officials said though tourists may feel they’re being over-billed, it isn’t the park service’s fault.

“Ferry prices are set by Statue Cruises. They choose to [set] that price, they … Ferries are expensive to run,” said John Harlan Warren, a park service spokesperson.

Statue Cruises’ owners could not be reached for comment.

Hurricane Sandy caused about $77 million in damages to Ellis Island, Warren said. Repairs were made in time for Lady Liberty to reopen on July 4th. Though the park service website reports that Ellis Island will reopen in 2014, spokesperson Warren said no specific reopening date has been set.

“Most of the damage [involves] the things you can’t see. The more we look into things, the more damage we find,” Warren said. “We [initially] thought it was $59 million worth of repairs, it’s actually $77 million.”

Compared to last year, approximately 2,000 fewer people a day are going to the island which ordinarily welcomes between 14,000 and 15,000 visitors daily during the summer.