Want to know if your ferry is running on time? NCDOT will now text or email you
People traveling to Ocracoke and other places along the coast can now get email and text messages letting them know the status of the ferry they plan to take.
For the first time, people can sign up to be notified when ferries are delayed or canceled because of weather, mechanical problems or other issues.
The N.C. Department of Transportation will continue to provide updates about ferry schedules on Twitter, but the department says many travelers have asked to be notified directly.
Under the new Ferry Information Notification System, or FINS, people can pick the routes they care about and whether they want to receive alerts via email, text or both. The alerts will come directly from ferry terminals when a trip is delayed or canceled or when service is scheduled to resume.
“This is going to be a major benefit for our passengers,” Harold Thomas, director of NCDOT’s Ferry Division, said in a statement. “Getting timely information on schedule interruptions will allow ferry riders to make informed decisions on when and where to travel.”
NCDOT is beta-testing FINS, asking early users for their feedback before fully implementing the system later this spring.
To sign up for FINS, go to www.ncdot.gov/fins and pick the routes you want to be notified about. There are also instructions for how to provide feedback on the new system and how to stop the notifications.
With eight coastal ferry routes, North Carolina has the second largest state-run ferry system in the country, after Washington. The boats carried more than 712,000 cars and trucks and nearly 1.6 million passengers last year.
This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 11:15 AM.
