The Woodland Ferry in Seaford will likely see some changes in its future but one state lawmaker says they are not for the better.
Gov. Matt Meyer’s Executive Order 14, signed in the fall 2025, established the Delaware Task Force on Sustainable Transportation Funding to help DelDOT maintain the Transportation Trust Fund.
According to the Task Force, the ferry costs about $755,000 to operate annually, and costs the state over $30 per car each time it runs.
But Seaford’s State Representative Danny Short says that cost estimate might be influenced by the vessel's unreliability.
“When it first came into being, it only ran six months out of the first 14 months that it was in service. Right now it’s been out of service for three weeks. So, when you try to do math to determine the cost: if you don’t run it, every trip is more expensive- because there's no trips.” he said.
One suggestion in the pipeline is either introducing a fare to the Woodland Ferry in Seaford, or selling the operation. Short disagrees with both options.
“DelDOT should study a smaller ferry. That does two things: provide more reliability for it to run, which has been the problem. And, if it’s a smaller ferry, [it] doesn’t require that intense captain's license that has inhibited us from hiring employees to run this.” he said.
Currently, the ferry requires a captain who is licensed to pilot ships of 100 tons. Short says three such captains originally staffed the boat, but two quit after the boat repeatedly went out of service.
Short adds that despite the six figure cost to operate, it's "well under 1% of the $125 million the agency spends from the TTF each year."
He says that while the Task Force is accepting public input via survey, that survey offers little in the way of directed comment about the ferry. In a release, he asked the public to submit their comments to the following email address: Dotpr@Delaware.gov
The Task Force must deliver recommendations to the governor and General Assembly no later than December.
