Post by ferryfast admin on Jan 15, 2006 23:35:19 GMT -5
Floating bus is engineer's answer to Sound commuting
By KEN VALENTI
kvalenti@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: January 3, 2006)
Westchester residents could find a quicker ride to Nassau County with an idea that a Long Island engineer has for a rolling, floating bus he calls a Pontiphian.
Anthony Caserta, 67, a retired engineer from Northrop Grumman, and his son, Charles, are creating a bus that would roll along local highways and could use any ordinary boat ramp, like the one at Harbor Island Park in Mamaroneck, to settle into the water. His first route would connect the Mamaroneck train station at Mamaroneck Avenue with the Glen Street station in Glen Cove on Long Island, a plan that has caught Mamaroneck Mayor Philip Trifiletti's interest.
Caserta and his son have created a two-seat prototype, which they have sailed in Huntington Harbor near his home, the base of his business, Inspecto Inc. He is seeking $500,000 in grants to create the first usable 30-seat Pontiphian. With that humble start, his plans are big.
"We've created it here, locally in the metropolitan area," Caserta said. "This will be our first real application. We have a lot of other possible routes. ... We see it as a worldwide industry."
If it works, Caserta's service would answer some of the problems raised in a recent study that showed Westchester's highly developed Long Island Sound coast is not ideal for ferry service.
The Pontiphian's 12-mile ride, with stops at Mamaroneck Village Hall and Glen Cove City Hall, would take 40 minutes, Caserta projects. A one-way ride would cost $15. The route could be expanded, reaching, for example, downtown White Plains and Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City.
The Casertas assembled the prototype with scrap-yard parts: a Ford Bronco's 351 Windsor engine, Volvo seats and a Ford Mustang steering wheel. A soup can over the wheel hub packs grease to protect the ball bearings from saltwater.
"We just knocked that together as cheaply as possible to prove out the concept," Charles Caserta said.
The prototype is useful for showing what will work when they build the larger, more polished version, they said.
In water, the vehicle's wheels retract, and U-shaped sheets of metal slide forward to create pontoons, with pumps inside to eject water. When the vehicle rises out of the water, it is like any other bus, if an unusual-looking one.
"On land, it's a bus," Caserta said. "Anywhere a bus can go, we can run this route."
Caserta said there is a need for the service. The 2000 census showed more than 5,000 people commuting between Westchester and Nassau counties.
Trifiletti said it could serve not only commuters but day-trippers from Long Island.
"It would show people in Long Island and other points along the shore what a great place our village is," he said.
Caserta's plan faces challenges. At first, he would have only one bus, leaving him the responsibility of getting word to commuters if it broke down. Hurricane weather could force the driver to follow the same overland route that the service is meant to avoid.
Still, innovations like Caserta's could be the answer to commuting problems, said Kevin Wolfson, project manager for the Long Island Sound Waterborne Transportation Study. A study in November concluded, in part, that commuter ferries from Westchester face challenges from modest demand and a lack of adequate places to dock. To make cross-Sound commuting work might require new modes of transportation, such as the Pontiphian, or a boat another innovator proposed that can move at high speeds without creating a large wake, allowing for speedier trips through harbors, he said.
"As those things are developed and put in the water, it can open up a lot of possibilities," Wolfson said.
To run a traditional ferry to Mamaroneck, for instance, would require a bulkhead, with access for the disabled, built most likely in the west basin of Mamaroneck Harbor, for an estimated $2 million, the report said. The Pontiphian would use the harbor's existing boat ramp.
"The beauty is that the village wouldn't have to do anything," Trifiletti said.
At least one commuter would be interested in seeing the service. Andrew Schepard, director of the Hofstra University School of Law's Center for Children, Families and the Law, commutes to the college in Hempstead from his Larchmont home.
"I love the vision of the idea," said Schepard, 56. "It's a neat idea."
The Pontiphian could cut his commute, which can take an hour and a half in traffic. But he would be concerned that public transportation would not be reliable enough to get him to work if the Pontiphian didn't take him directly there. He also said he would worry how it handled rough waters. "I'd have to see what the thing looked like," he said.
By KEN VALENTI
kvalenti@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: January 3, 2006)
Westchester residents could find a quicker ride to Nassau County with an idea that a Long Island engineer has for a rolling, floating bus he calls a Pontiphian.
Anthony Caserta, 67, a retired engineer from Northrop Grumman, and his son, Charles, are creating a bus that would roll along local highways and could use any ordinary boat ramp, like the one at Harbor Island Park in Mamaroneck, to settle into the water. His first route would connect the Mamaroneck train station at Mamaroneck Avenue with the Glen Street station in Glen Cove on Long Island, a plan that has caught Mamaroneck Mayor Philip Trifiletti's interest.
Caserta and his son have created a two-seat prototype, which they have sailed in Huntington Harbor near his home, the base of his business, Inspecto Inc. He is seeking $500,000 in grants to create the first usable 30-seat Pontiphian. With that humble start, his plans are big.
"We've created it here, locally in the metropolitan area," Caserta said. "This will be our first real application. We have a lot of other possible routes. ... We see it as a worldwide industry."
If it works, Caserta's service would answer some of the problems raised in a recent study that showed Westchester's highly developed Long Island Sound coast is not ideal for ferry service.
The Pontiphian's 12-mile ride, with stops at Mamaroneck Village Hall and Glen Cove City Hall, would take 40 minutes, Caserta projects. A one-way ride would cost $15. The route could be expanded, reaching, for example, downtown White Plains and Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City.
The Casertas assembled the prototype with scrap-yard parts: a Ford Bronco's 351 Windsor engine, Volvo seats and a Ford Mustang steering wheel. A soup can over the wheel hub packs grease to protect the ball bearings from saltwater.
"We just knocked that together as cheaply as possible to prove out the concept," Charles Caserta said.
The prototype is useful for showing what will work when they build the larger, more polished version, they said.
In water, the vehicle's wheels retract, and U-shaped sheets of metal slide forward to create pontoons, with pumps inside to eject water. When the vehicle rises out of the water, it is like any other bus, if an unusual-looking one.
"On land, it's a bus," Caserta said. "Anywhere a bus can go, we can run this route."
Caserta said there is a need for the service. The 2000 census showed more than 5,000 people commuting between Westchester and Nassau counties.
Trifiletti said it could serve not only commuters but day-trippers from Long Island.
"It would show people in Long Island and other points along the shore what a great place our village is," he said.
Caserta's plan faces challenges. At first, he would have only one bus, leaving him the responsibility of getting word to commuters if it broke down. Hurricane weather could force the driver to follow the same overland route that the service is meant to avoid.
Still, innovations like Caserta's could be the answer to commuting problems, said Kevin Wolfson, project manager for the Long Island Sound Waterborne Transportation Study. A study in November concluded, in part, that commuter ferries from Westchester face challenges from modest demand and a lack of adequate places to dock. To make cross-Sound commuting work might require new modes of transportation, such as the Pontiphian, or a boat another innovator proposed that can move at high speeds without creating a large wake, allowing for speedier trips through harbors, he said.
"As those things are developed and put in the water, it can open up a lot of possibilities," Wolfson said.
To run a traditional ferry to Mamaroneck, for instance, would require a bulkhead, with access for the disabled, built most likely in the west basin of Mamaroneck Harbor, for an estimated $2 million, the report said. The Pontiphian would use the harbor's existing boat ramp.
"The beauty is that the village wouldn't have to do anything," Trifiletti said.
At least one commuter would be interested in seeing the service. Andrew Schepard, director of the Hofstra University School of Law's Center for Children, Families and the Law, commutes to the college in Hempstead from his Larchmont home.
"I love the vision of the idea," said Schepard, 56. "It's a neat idea."
The Pontiphian could cut his commute, which can take an hour and a half in traffic. But he would be concerned that public transportation would not be reliable enough to get him to work if the Pontiphian didn't take him directly there. He also said he would worry how it handled rough waters. "I'd have to see what the thing looked like," he said.