Cape May Lewes Ferry

Ferryboat at Cape May Lewes Ferry

Cape May Lewes Ferry carried 746,699 ferryboat boardings in FY2024 at $32.41 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Ferryboat New Castle, DE
FY2024 boardings
746.7K
+0.2% vs FY2023
Cost per ride
$32.41
+2% nationwide $16.88
Subsidy per ride
$25.22
+2.9% operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
22.2%
-2.8% nationwide 25.8%
Passenger miles
12.6M
average trip 16.9 miles
Operating cost
$24.2M
Vehicles in service
3
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
89.19
8.4K hours operated

Ridership

Monthly data through July 2026.

This year against the last five

Same months on one axis, so seasonality does not read as a trend

Annual boardings

Ten-year series

Cost

This service against every ferryboat operator in the country.

Cost per ride

This agency against the national figure for the same mode

Fare recovery

Share of operating cost covered by fares

Directly operated and purchased service, FY2024

NTD reports these separately. An agency that contracts a service out reports the contract price, which bundles costs a directly operating agency reports line by line.

Service Boardings Passenger miles Revenue hours Operating cost Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery Vehicles
Directly operated 746,699 12,619,179 8,372 $24,201,513 $32.41 $25.22 22.2% 3

Safety and reliability

For this service alone.

Events by year

Complete calendar years only

Miles between failures

Revenue miles divided by mechanical failures. Higher is better.

Full series

Every year Cape May Lewes Ferry reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2024 746,699 12,619,179 72,923 8,372 $24,201,513 $5,369,640 $32.41 $25.22 22.2%
2023 745,196 12,593,812 73,480 8,474 $23,674,255 $5,404,748 $31.77 $24.52 22.8%
2022 721,923 12,189,772 71,640 8,120 $24,488,286 $6,663,334 $33.92 $24.69 27.2%
2021 669,660 11,307,289 66,909 6,998 $21,834,158 $5,140,956 $32.60 $24.93 23.5%