Worldwide Ferry Safety Association Design Competition Open

The Worldwide Ferry Safety Association (WFSA) announces its sixth annual international student design competition for a safe affordable ferry, seeking designs for a passenger vessel to traverse the iconic Pasig River of Metropolitan Manila.

Metropolitan Manila, composed of 18 municipalities (including the City of Manila), is a flourishing vibrant joyous city with a total population of 24 million people. The metro area would benefit from a ferry system to relieve congestion. Metropolitan Manila, fast growing, and increasingly prosperous, has, according to a study by WAZE, “the worst traffic on earth.”

The City of Manila itself (population 1.8 million) has the distinction of being considered the most densely populated city on earth. Like many other modern cities Metro Manila is rediscovering its river for passenger transport. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) currently oversees the operation of a passenger service on the Pasig River around which the city was originally built and is planning a major new upgrade in coordination with effective efforts to clean the river. The MMDA is calling for a fleet of 50-passenger vessels that would land at 12 stops along the Pasig River. The specification for this design competition would be a way of potentially supplementing the government’s planned service and calls for 100-passenger vessels that would make just three stops in the urban core, stops that are associated with multi-modal transit options and commercial-business density.

Archipelago Philippine Ferries Corporation (APFC) is a partner in this endeavor and helped devise the specifications for the student competition. Mary Ann Pastrana, EVP, said, “Our hope for this competition is to bring attention to the need and opportunity for designing and operating safe and efficient ferries to help the people of our nation to travel in comfort.” APFC has 11 Routes and carries three million passengers annually.

Worldwide Ferry Safety Association Executive Director Dr. Roberta Weisbrod said “Once again we present a challenging set of specifications and await students’ creativity to developing innovative solutions. We believe the competition will encourage students to understand that their design choices will have profound effects on people’s lives.” 

The mission of the WFSA is to reduce ferry fatalities and to extend the use of safe ferries everywhere possible. In addition to the Design Competition, WFSA conducts and publishes research, and convenes the international Ferry Safety and Technology Conference, upcoming in Bangkok February 20-22, 2019. For more information about WFSA please see www.ferrysafety.org

For student teams to register for the design competition please see www.ferrysafetydesigncompetition.org