CDTA eyes end to downward trend

PHOTOGRAPHER: Stephen Williams

The Capital District Transportation Authority has gotten its first glimmer of good news about ridership after a year of watching it decline following a system-wide fare increase in April 2009.

Ridership took an immediate hit after the basic fare rose from $1 to $1.50 last April 1 and for the past 12 months was down overall by 10 percent, or about 1.6 million boardings.

But March 2010 saw a break from that trend, being down only 3 percent from March 2009, CDTA Executive Director Carm Basile said Wednesday.

“We’re hoping we’re starting to turn things around,” Basile said at the monthly meeting of the CDTA board at the Rensselaer Amtrak station.

For the 2009-10 fiscal year, which ended March 31, CDTA buses had 13.8 million total riders, down from 15.4 million in 2008-09, which was near the record.

Basile said he really can’t explain why the month of March showed a comparative improvement, with 1.28 million boardings, compared to 1.32 million in March 2009.

“One month does not make a trend. We’re hopeful we’ll be able to reverse the downward trend starting next month, when we’ll be able to make comparisons since the fare increase,” he said.

CDTA, which provides mass transit service for Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga and Rensselaer counties, was seeing near-record ridership before the fare increase — but it was something officials said had to be done to balance the authority’s budget.

Cutbacks on less-used routes to save money also contributed to the ridership decline, and officials have said higher unemployment may also have hurt ridership.

CDTA is continuing to deal with expected reductions in state transportation aid.

“The community respects what we do, and our challenge is to form partnerships and alliances that result in more funding and investments in more service,” Basile said in his written report to the board.

He said CDTA has the backing of local state legislators in seeking more transportation money through the mortgage recording tax, but “the political and economic climates are against them and against us at CDTA.”

On April 22 — Earth Day — the authority gave free rides to 13,000 people, about one-third of all riders, for wearing green as part of a promotion done with YNN cable news and WPYX.

“We need to do more of those sorts of things to engage the community,” Basile said. “People had definitely heard about it.”

One of the projects on hold because of the authority’s financial problems is the Bus Rapid Transit system between Schenectady and Albany.

But Basile held out new hope Wednesday, saying U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has included $16 million for the project among the requests he submitted to the Senate Transportation Committee for funding.

“It is the wish list … but being on the wish list is a giant first step,” Basile said.

The BRT system would put more buses on the Central Avenue route, along with new bus shelters; the goal is to increase the speed and frequency of service through Schenectady, Colonie and Albany.