A passenger ferry that could one day carry riders from Leonardtown and Historic St. Mary’s City across the Chesapeake Bay has cleared another planning hurdle, and the man leading the local push wants the boats to be electric.
Ben Cohen told the St. Mary’s County Transportation Advisory Committee on Oct. 15 that the effort won a grant from the Calvert-St. Mary’s Metropolitan Planning Organization to write an implementation plan for St. Mary’s and Calvert counties. Cohen, listed in county Economic Development Commission minutes as a development facilitator with the St. Mary’s County Department of Economic Development, said the team is now interviewing consultants to help draft a request for information, the step before a formal request for proposals.
No route, schedule, fare or operator has been chosen. The project remains in planning and grant-hunting, Cohen said, and the next plan is meant to tell local officials which partnerships and funding to chase first.
Southern Maryland was the only area outside Anne Arundel County to win additional money for its ferry work after the original study, he said. He did not give the grant amount.
From tourism study to transportation plan
The idea grew out of a Chesapeake Bay passenger ferry feasibility study commissioned by Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County with Calvert, Queen Anne’s, Somerset and St. Mary’s counties. Cohen said two Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism grants paid for that work, which is why it leaned toward tourism.
Released in August 2024, the study laid out six routes and 14 initial stops, expandable to 21. One proposed route would link Solomons Island, St. Mary’s City, Leonardtown and Crisfield, according to Chesapeake Bay Magazine’s summary of the findings. Cohen stressed that routes and stops are not set and that service could someday reach up the Potomac and into Virginia and Delaware.
Now, he said, the pitch has widened beyond tourism to workforce, rural economic development, access to health care and housing, and environmental benefits.
The northern end of the system is further along. Anne Arundel County received nearly $3.9 million from the Federal Transit Administration’s Electric or Low-Emitting Ferry Program in 2024 to buy and run electric ferries between Annapolis, Baltimore and Matapeake on Kent Island, CBS News Baltimore reported. Cohen said Southern Maryland hopes to join that system, but routes connecting the northern and southern ends would be needed first.
Quiet boats, small docks
Cohen is advocating for fully electric or hybrid hydrofoil vessels, which lift out of the water at speed. He said they use 80% to 90% less electricity than conventional vessels, give a quiet and stable ride, and leave no wake, so they would not add to shoreline erosion. They also qualify for extra federal money aimed at low-emission ferries.
Because they need so little power, the boats could charge at existing marinas, he said. Where charging lags, a barge carrying a generator could top off batteries to extend range. The plan favors a fleet of smaller boats that run full, rather than large vessels that are crowded twice a day and nearly empty the rest. Smaller boats could also tie up at a private pier for an event or a farm visit.
Committee members asked about parking, since riders might leave cars for a full day. Cohen said parking varies by community, but both proposed St. Mary’s sites, Leonardtown and Historic St. Mary’s City, have enough. Landside links, such as bus routes, bike routes and signs, have been part of talks with the county Department of Transportation, and Leonardtown has looked at ways to move visitors around town.
Fares and who runs it
Cohen said the study’s limited rider survey found people wanted to pay less than the going rate for water transportation, which is roughly double what respondents named unless service is subsidized. At market rates, he said, a full system would break even in its first year and turn a profit afterward.
The study’s published first-season scenario was less rosy for a smaller start. Assuming a $50 average round-trip fare, it projected about 50,000 riders, $2.5 million in revenue and about $5 million in costs, according to Bay Journal reporting.
Ownership is still open. Annapolis runs its piece through the county Department of Transportation budget. The study identified a public-private partnership as the ideal, letting a professional operator run boats while governments keep a say, Cohen said. If a private company wanted to run the service on its own, he said, it could.
Getting the ferry into planning documents, including the county’s comprehensive plan, matters because it makes future grant requests more competitive and shows the project is well thought out, Cohen said. That process was not as smooth as he had hoped. St. Mary’s commissioners are set to vote Oct. 20 on the county’s 2050 comprehensive plan.
Partners so far range from Leonardtown, Historic St. Mary’s City and St. Mary’s College of Maryland to the Maryland Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Park Service. Some grants require the state or another type of agency to apply, which means more partnerships, Cohen said. He called it a big lift with no single solution and asked the committee to help spread the word to other county departments. Members offered to help.
