Staten Island Ferry statistics
Open numbers from the independent, free Track the Boat tracker. Computed from live ship-radio (AIS) reports of the Staten Island Ferry fleet. Not affiliated with NYC DOT.
How good is the live data?
The tracker is only as good as the position reports it receives. While a ferry is underway, its transponder sends a report every few seconds, but the public feed we use passes along far fewer. This table shows how often a boat's position actually updated on the map.
| Boat | Class | Avg gap | Median | 90th pct | Longest | >3 min | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alice Austen | austen | 110 s | 61 s | 201 s | 24.1 min | 14.9% | 161 |
| Dorothy Day | ollis | 89 s | 65 s | 183 s | 23.7 min | 10.8% | 5613 |
| Guy V Molinari | molinari | 104 s | 67 s | 216 s | 25.9 min | 15.1% | 6194 |
| John A Noble | austen | 84 s | 62 s | 180 s | 21.2 min | 9.8% | 2580 |
| Samuel I. Newhouse | barberi | 78 s | 60 s | 159 s | 22.9 min | 7.9% | 3245 |
| Sandy Ground | ollis | 84 s | 62 s | 179 s | 16.8 min | 9.6% | 11558 |
| Sen. John J. Marchi | molinari | 82 s | 61 s | 171 s | 11.0 min | 9.0% | 8448 |
“Gap” = time between two consecutive reports from the same boat while both show speed above 5 knots; gaps over 30 minutes are treated as outages and left out. “>3 min” is the share of gaps longer than 180 s. Updated every 10 minutes. 2026-10-24 01:19 UTC
Crossing times and speeds
Per boat, from completed crossings. Tide, current, wind and the timetable move these numbers as much as the boat does; Buttermilk and training runs are kept out of the normal averages.
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Which boat leaves next?
The tracker names the boat it expects to leave each terminal next, and then checks itself.
Whitehall: Sandy Ground (very likely; inbound, about 8 min away)
St. George: Sen. John J. Marchi (likely; docked 26 min)
| Called right | 7 days | 30 days | All |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whitehall | 89% (84) | 89% (84) | 89% (84) |
| St. George | 64% (119) | 64% (119) | 64% (119) |
A call is made when a boat leaves a terminal: the boat that has been docked there longest (up to 30 minutes) leaves next; if none is docked, the inbound boat that arrives soonest. It counts as right if that boat is the next to leave. Numbers in brackets are how many calls have been checked. Tested on past crossings (Sep 4 to Oct 21), the same rule was right 95-99% of the time at Whitehall and 56% midday to 93% at the afternoon peak at St. George. Boats do get swapped or taken out of service, so it will sometimes miss.
About this data
- Source: AIS ship-position reports for the Staten Island Ferry fleet, logged by this site. Phone locations from the “Which boat am I on?” feature never leave your phone.
- More statistics will appear here as they are built: a next-boat prediction record, service reliability and per-class pages.
- Live AIS data comes from AISstream. Data: AISstream.
Free, non-commercial, independent. Not for navigation.