Carteret is moving closer to having ferry service along its waterfront.

Ferry service is expected to be up and running in Carteret by spring 2025. It’s being pitched as a new way to commute to New York City in under an hour, and it’s the lynchpin of a major redevelopment for the borough.

The Arthur Kill is best known for helping ships move along from the ocean and Raritan Bay into Port Elizabeth and Port Newark.

In another year, one will also see commuter ferries making trips to Manhattan from this waterway along Carteret.

The abandoned Dupont Chemical site along Roosevelt Avenue is slowly being cleared and transformed into a terminal. It will hold a pier for access to ferries. A bulkhead has already been built along the shoreline. It will sit and connect with Waterfront Park and the municipal marina.

Eventually, right behind that terminal, there will also be what is being described as an Intermodal Transportation Building that will hold restaurants and retail space.

Much of the ferry will be paid for with the help of $6 million from the Federal Transit Administration. The Transportation Trust Fund will also pitch in $1 million, and $3 million is being paid for with a Department of Community Affairs grant. Carteret will pay $283,000.

This ferry service is a major piece of a much larger redevelopment plan in Carteret centered around new housing developments, the performing arts center, hotels and Waterfront Park.

Borough officials are pitching the ferry as a great way to avoid driving to New York City for work, skipping out those tunnel tolls and eventually congestion pricing.

The mayor has said this is all part of making Carteret a destination town.