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In related news, the agency is celebrating Thursday afternoon the groundbreaking of a planned $49.5 million operations and maintenance facility in Alameda that's expected to begin operation by mid-2018.

The four-story, 20,000-square-foot facility, along with a maintenance yard, dock, and diesel fuel facility will be dubbed the Ron Cowan Central Bay Operations and Maintenance Facility, in honor of real estate developer and passenger ferry proponent Ron Cowan, who started a passenger ferry service linking San Francisco and the East Bay nearly three decades ago.

The new project, located at Alameda Point, 1 W. Hornet Avenue in Alameda, will also feature berthing slips for 12 ferries.

Dignitaries including Cowan, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, WETA vice chairman Jim Wunderman (also president and CEO of the Bay Area Council), WETA chair Jody Breckenridge and Alameda Mayor Trish Herrera Spencer are expected to attend the groundbreaking event.

Officials say it will serve as a consolidated maintenance base and operations control center for WETA’s Central Bay Fleet, which services the Alameda/Oakland, Alameda Harbor Bay, and South San Francisco routes, and is expected to provide future services for new routes to Treasure Island and Richmond.