The Ferries Magnetic Stripe Ticketing section (from 2016) has been relocated to the Manly Ferries Ticketing Page.

The four large Manly ferries were ordered new by the Wran Labor government in the 1980s. They were originally docked every five years, at the rate of one a year in the order of their original construction. With only four vessels, the fifth year was a skip year. Until the 2015-18 round of dry-dockings all the ships were being maintaned for an indefinate life, virtually being returned at as-new condition at each dry docking.

In 2019 The then Liberal government made plans with TfNSW and the Sydney Ferries franchisee to work towards retiring all the larger Manly ferries, and thus initially the usual programmed dry docking simply stopped. As the inadequate capacity and performance of the replacement catamaran ferries on the Manly route became increasing apparent, it was was decided to retain firstly one, then two, and now currently three of the original Manly ferries. The main issue is that it historically takes four ships of 1100 passenger capacity to shift the Summer holiday crowds to and from Manly. The Freshwater ended up being drydocked about five months after it normally would have been done, in late February 2021. No Manly Ferry dry docking was undertaken in 2022.

The current plan to retain the original ferries requires getting each of them dry docked again to give a further five year service life for each one (before dry docking is due again). It remains to be seen whether this round of dry dockings will be a once-off special forced by public opinion, and the poor performance of the intended replacement vessels, with TfNSW and the new Labor government using the time gained by this round of dry dockings to have another attempt at building larger replacement Manly ferries, which may be electric powered.

See the 2015 dry docking of MV Freshwater at Garden Island in captioned pictures.

See the 2017 dry docking of MV Narrabeen at Garden Island in captioned pictures.

See the 2018 dry docking of MV Collaroy at Garden Island in captioned pictures.

Manly Ferry annual patronage currently available between 2006-07 and 2019-20 is as follows:-

Year	1995-96	1999-00	2000-01*	2001-02	2006-07~	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Ferry pass. trips	3,718,000	4,368,797	5,318,555	5,082,110	5,406,300	5,704,085	6,060,500	5,980,154

 

Year	2010-11^	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20#
Ferry pass. trips	6,046,867	5,781,871	5,801,897	6,107,869	5,741,092	TBA	5,280,564	4,946,629	4,414,262	3,300,464

* = The Sydney Olympics were in the 2000-1 year figures.
~ = The annual figures for 2006-7 are estimates as May 07 and June 07 actual figures are missing.
^ = On the 2nd January 2011, around 45,000 passenger trips were made on the four Freshwater class Manly Ferries operating the Summer timetable.
# = The impact of Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing heavily reduced patronage from March - June 2020 in the 2019-20 year figures.

Manly Ferry Monthly patronage for 2007-8 to 2014-5 is as follows:-

Month	July	August	September	October	November	December	January	February	March	April	May	June
2007-8 Ferry pass. trips	407,020	411,725	398,323	451,179	536,860	568,942	654,828	482,574	570,391	450,039	414,831	357,373
2008-9 Ferry pass. trips	466,830	420,977	457,525	514,289	480,715	645,308	762,558	479,078	584,844	486,102	395,688	376,586
2009-10 Ferry pass. trips	444,050	477,637	458,145	473,625	530,963	638,303	670,053	488,540	543,615	506,568	385,047	363,608
2010-11 Ferry pass. trips	419,593	421,771	456,609	477,230	497,968	615,023	761,274	524,796	592,832	502,623	405,659	371,489
2011-12 Ferry pass. trips	525,593	410,755	424,678	490,350	492,847	544,906	714,442	537,678	516,841	499,275	396,066	328,440
2012-13 Ferry pass. trips	407,853	389,309	467,867	488,174	476,327	598,814	675,337	470,250	564,649	501,380	406,214	355,723
2013-14 Ferry pass. trips	467,824	454,850	460,744	560,771	442,180	625,290	744,570	496,635	530,075	476,558	448,936	399,436
2014-15 Ferry pass. trips	398,823	376,083	526,369	496,083	515,789	571,506	663,933	521,401	525,451	402,735	386,672	356,247
2007-15 Average Ferry pass. trips	442,198	420,388	456,283	493,963	496,706	601,012	705,874	500,119	553,587	478,160	404,889	363,613
2007-15 Standard Deviation in pass. trips	9.8%	7.8%	8.0%	6.6%	6.3%	6.0%	6.4%	4.9%	5.2%	7.5%	5.1%	5.6%
2007-15 % of annual	7.5%	7.1%	7.7%	8.3%	8.4%	10.2%	11.9%	8.5%	9.4%	8.1%	6.8%	6.1%

Manly Ferry Monthly patronage for 2018-19 is as follows:-

Month	July	August	September	October	November	December	January	February	March	April	May	June
Ferry pass. trips	343,474	285,737	323,334	316,629	363,199	498,362	537,333	377,394	387,628	408,440	294,363	278,369
% of annual	7.8%	6.5%	7.3%	7.2%	8.2%	11.3%	12.2%	8.5%	8.8%	9.3%	6.7%	6.3%

The above table shows Manly Ferry passenger traffic has a large seasonal component. E.g. The busiest month of January has nearly twice the traffic of the quietest month of June. If the traffic was uniform, every month would simply have 8.3% of the annual total. In 2018-9 only November is near this average. December to April is higher than the average and July-October and May-June are lower than the average.

From late December to the end of January the Manly services operate on a four ship Summer Timetable, with ferries every 20 minutes during the day. With the Freshwater class, this gives the capacity of moving 3,300 people per hour, to and from Manly. On the busiest Summer days even this capacity is more than fully utilised (ie passengers have to queue).

This data has been sourced from the NSW Bureau of Transport Statistics, and Transport for NSW web sites. Some earlier annual patronage figures are also available on the Jetcat page

Adobe Acrobat Reader software is required to view the downloaded files. If this is not currently installed, click on the Acrobat Reader icon to obtain this program.
Below is a list of ferry Annual Reports and other related documents from 1997 to date, which are available in digital form on-line for reference. Note, other than this index page and the contract documents, all files are loaded from this site as they no longer exist on the original servers. Most Acrobat files contain searchable text - with sizes as indicated.

		Document Type:	Franchise Contract
		Title:	Ferry System Contract (with Transdev Sydney Ferries Pty Ltd)
		No. of Pages:	354
		Publication Date:	15/04/2019
		Download:	2019 Ferry System Contract (Heavily redacted version) (3.03M)
		Document Type:	Franchise Contract
		Title:	Ferry System Contract (with Harbour City Ferries)
		No. of Pages:	115
		Publication Date:	7/12/2012
		Download:	2012 Ferry System Contract (Redacted Execution version) (4.11M) 2012 Ferry System Contract Schedules (Redacted Execution version but incomplete) (4.22M)
In July 2012 Sydney Ferries operations were transferred to private franchisee Harbour City Ferries (now Transdev Sydney Ferries). The contract was for over $800 million over a 7 year term.
		Document Type:	Contract Summary
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Corporation In-house Contract (Amended version)
		No. of Pages:	1
		Publication Date:	21/06/2010
		View:	2009 Sydney Ferries In-house Contract Summary
This mirrored web page documents the amended contract with the (State-Owned) Sydney Ferries Corporation, which was for around $199.9 million for the shortened just over a 2-year term. (Originally the operating contract awarded to Sydney Ferries was for a $589.3 million Net Cost to Government over a 7 year term.)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Annual Report 2011-12
		No. of Pages:	104
		Publication Date:	18/10/2012
		Download:	Annual Report 2011-12 (3.86M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Annual Report 2010-11
		No. of Pages:	96
		Publication Date:	07/11/2011
		Download:	Annual Report 2010-11 (3.57M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Annual Report 2009-10
		No. of Pages:	92
		Publication Date:	28/10/2010
		Download:	Annual Report 2009-10 (3.57M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Annual Report 2008-09
		No. of Pages:	96
		Publication Date:	25/11/2009
		Download:	Annual Report 2008-09 (2.90M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Annual Report 2007-08
		No. of Pages:	112
		Publication Date:	12/11/2008
		Download:	Annual Report 2007-08 (7.86M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Annual Report 2006-07
		No. of Pages:	92
		Publication Date:	22/11/2007
		Download:	Annual Report 2006-07 (6.66M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Annual Report 2005-06
		No. of Pages:	75
		Publication Date:	05/12/2006
		Download:	Annual Report 2005-06 (1.84M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	Sydney Ferries Annual Report 2004-05
		No. of Pages:	65
		Publication Date:	29/11/2005
		Download:	Annual Report 2004-05 (3.58M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	State Transit Annual Report 2003-04 (Includes Sydney Ferry Services)
		No. of Pages:	112
		Publication Date:	24/02/2005
		Download:	Annual Report 2003-04 (1.60M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	State Transit Annual Report 2002-03 (Includes Sydney Ferry Services)
		No. of Pages:	115
		Publication Date:	17/12/2003
		Download:	Annual Report 2002-03 (1.22M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	State Transit Annual Report 2001-02 (Includes Sydney Ferry Services)
		No. of Pages:	117
		Publication Date:	21/11/2002
		Download:	Annual Report 2001-02 (2.78M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	State Transit Annual Report 2000-01 (Includes Sydney Ferry Services)
		No. of Pages:	137
		Publication Date:	29/11/2001
		Download:	Annual Report 2000-01 (3.0M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	State Transit Annual Report 1999-00 (Includes Sydney Ferry Services)
		No. of Pages:	138
		Publication Date:	18/12/2000
		Download:	Annual Report 1999-00 (1.28M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	State Transit Annual Report 1998-99 (Includes Sydney Ferry Services)
		No. of Pages:	97
		Publication Date:	13/12/1999
		Download:	Annual Report 1998-99 (1.39M)
		Document Type:	Annual Report
		Title:	State Transit Annual Report 1996-97 (html version) (Includes Sydney Ferry Services)
		No. of Pages:	49
		Publication Date:	12/1997
		View:	Annual Report 1996-97 (in web page format) An interesting gem from the early days of the public internet!
The missing STA 2004-05 and 2005-06 Annual Reports which are not on the STA website, nor Transport NSW website, are provided here for completeness (they are not relevent for Sydney Ferries infomation).
		Download:	STA Annual Report 2005-06 (3.14M)
		Download:	STA Annual Report 2004-05 (2.13M)

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