New kind of shuttle:

Tech giant adds private ferry as commute option

Google offers a private ferry service for its employees from S.F.

Google has found a new way to ferry employees from San Francisco to its Mountain View headquarters — actual ferries.

Amid backlash from activists who say the tech giant’s chartered buses clog public transportation stops, Google began shuttling workers by catamaran Monday from the Port of San Francisco to Redwood City.

From there, workers hop on buses — yes, more buses — to complete the final 11 miles of their voyage.

“We certainly don’t want to cause any inconvenience to (San Francisco) residents and we’re trying alternative ways to get Googlers to work,” Google.

The chartered 83-foot whale-watching catamaran, named the Triumphant, holds 149 passengers and runs twice each morning and evening, with voyages lasting about 47 minutes each way, according to KPIX, which broke the story.

The boat service started the same day City Hall said Google and other companies, including Apple and Genentech, that use public bus stops to pick up employees on private shuttles must pay roughly $1 per stop per day as part of an 18-month pilot program.

Google will reportedly pay about $50 each time it docks its ferry in San Francisco. The company’s foray into aquatic commutes is also a pilot program, and its future depends

on the service’s impact on public ferry operation, according to KPIX.

Critics of Google’s buses aren’t thrilled by news of the boat, citing concerns that catamarans are worse for the environment than shuttle buses.

“I have nothing against tech workers,” says Sarah SherburnZimmer, an organizer for the Housing Rights Committee who has been instrumental in the protests against Google’s buses. “There’s nothing environmentally friendly about moving a workforce huge distances. It doesn’t matter how you do it.”

The Triumphant, of course, is not to be confused with the other Google boat — a massive barge set to become an exhibition space.