“2017 may be the global breakout year for ferries,” says Dr. Roberta Weisbrod, Chief Executive of the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association (WFSA). She takes this viewpoint because of the tremendous expansion of ferries in India, Philippines, Thailand, new beginnings in West Africa, and the high profile expansion of the Citywide ferry service in New York City, where the WFSA’s third conference on International Ferry Safety and Technology conference will be held on May 11-12, 2017.
The WFSA 2017 conference, building on the successes of the past two years, will be of interest to ferry companies themselves, to naval architects and ship designers, to legislators/ regulators, and to providers of solutions for training, navigation and weather routing, and vessel propulsion, and of course design of vessels. There will be technical sessions on these and other ferry-specific topics such as technologies for ticketing and managing passenger counts, providing communications, and engineering design of berths and landings.
The WFSA has been tracking advances and opportunities in new ferry systems and has actively engaged the principals of ferry services to speak at the conferences.
Highlights of the 2017 conference will include speakers from the Philippines (where there is tremendous growth in inter-island ferry transport by a reputable operator), Thailand (where a major upgrade is being planned for Bangkok), West Africa (which has some exciting initiatives) –and, to be confirmed, a speaker from India (jumping into ferries in a big way, with ferries planned for east, west and south coasts). These new services, contributing to WFSA’s characterization of 2017 as a breakout year, have been overcoming difficult challenges with innovative solutions and are interested in sharing with others.
In conjunction with conference engagement from New York City Economic Development Corporation and Department of Transportation, attendees will also learn about the major expansions of ferry service in New York.