CDTA struggles to expand popular Saratoga bus routes

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The Capital District Transportation Authority would like to make improvements to its Saratoga County bus routes, but until the economy improves little can be done, CDTA officials said Monday.

CDTA would like to have buses running every half-hour, rather than every hour, on its successful Route 50 route that brings people from Saratoga County into Schenectady County, officials said.

“The problem now is, we don’t have the money to pay for it,” said Carm Basile, the CDTA’s deputy director for business development.

Basile, and CDTA Executive Director Raymond Melleady told about 30 people attending a CDTA “Town Hall Meeting” on Monday that changes and improvements in routes in the CDTA’s Saratoga County system are expected to be made in 2009.

Last week, CDTA announced that in April it will raise the cost of a bus ride for the first time in 13 years, from the current $1 per ride to $1.50. The authority is facing a $9 million budget shortfall in 2009 and needs the increase to bridge this gap, the officials said.

Melleady said ridership on its bus routes in Schenectady, Saratoga, Albany and Rensselaer counties has increased dramatically over the past year to numbers last seen in the early 1980s.

But at the same time, the cost of diesel fuel to run its fleet of buses has increased just as dramatically.

He said at the meeting held in the Saratoga Train Station on West Avenue that the CDTA’s board of directors was able to lock in its diesel fuel price this year at $2.97 per gallon through May 2009. After that the high cost of fuel will again be a major problem.

“We are trying to be as creative as possible,” Melleady said.

People at the meeting said they wanted better bus stop service in the Northway Exit 15-Route 50 area of Wilton, where several large shopping plazas and a mall are located.

He said the new Saratoga County bus routes have been in operation for 18 months and need to be reviewed and changes made.

“On Route 50 we should have one-half-hour frequency,” Melleady said. “Maybe we can reallocate other Saratoga routes [so this Route 50 service can be accomplished].”

Ridership on the Saratoga County routes has tripled over the past 18 months. High gas prices are cited as part of the reason. People are taking the bus to work rather than their cars.

Melleady said regular bus riders need to write their local congressman and senator to urge them to pass public transportation legislation currently pending in Washington. This legislation would provide additional federal dollars to the CDTA and other public transportation organizations.

Mary Marsicano, chairwoman of the Citizen Transportation Committee of Saratoga County, said her committee works with the CDTA to improve service and suggest changes.

Marsicano said she would have the committee draw up a petition, circulate the petition, and then send it to the representatives in Washington.

The CDTA holds town meetings on a regular basis in each county it serves. Regular riders attended Monday’s meeting to ask for changes in operations such as the location of bus shelters and additional stops on some of the routes in the county.

One Saratoga Springs man said he rides his bike to the bus stop, places it on one of the CDTA’s two bike carriers on the front of the bus, and rides the bus to Schenectady. When he arrives in Schenectady he rides his bike the rest of the way to his job in Rotterdam.

The CDTA officials say they would like to encourage such bike and bus service but sometimes the two bike carriers on the bus are filled and the bus can’t accommodate any more.

Several people at the meeting praised the CDTA bus drivers for their courtesy, especially to riders with disabilities.