CDTA dropping some low-use routes

CAPITAL REGION — The Capital District Transportation Authority will be eliminating bus trips or changing timing on more than a dozen of its routes in April, including making changes to several routes that serve Schenectady or Saratoga counties.

The authority said the trips being eliminated have low ridership and there are other alternative routes available for the riders who use them now. Also, the Schenectady Shopping Shuttle is being redesigned. The changes will take effect on Sunday, April 7.

“This round of service changes is very much trip-based. It is discontinuing trips that have the lowest ridership,” said CDTA spokeswoman Jaime Watson.

CDTA is eliminated the current last daily evening round trips on the Route 352 McClellan Street/Altamont Avenue route, which start at 7:55 p.m., and Saturday service on the route is being eliminated entirely. Weekday bus frequency is being reduced to every 70 minutes, from the current 60 minutes.

Also being cut is the last late-night round trip on the Route 450 route which runs on Route 50 between Schenectady and Wilton and has run until past midnight. The route has “very low ridership” after 10 p.m., CDTA officials said. Saturday service is being reduced so that buses run every 50 minutes, instead of every 40 minutes.

On Route 763 between downtown Schenectady and downtown Albany running through Rotterdam, the 8:18 a.m. weekday westbound trip is being eliminated, as is the 3:10 p.m. eastbound trip. The other daily trips each way on that route won’t change.

On Route 531, the St. Luke’s/Woodlawn run from Schenectady to downtown Albany will eliminate the daily 6:10 a.m. trip from Schenectady and the 3:17 p.m. route out of Albany, with no changes to other trips on that route.

Other low-ridership daily trips are being discontinued on routes serving Rensselaer and Albany counties.

In another Schenectady change, the twice-a-month Route 830 Schenectady Shopping Shuttle is being altered, and will be moved from Thursdays to Tuesdays. The route is adding the Mohawk Commons in Niskayuna as a shopping destination, but dropping ViaPort Rotterdam. ViaPort will continue to be served by other CDTA routes that run daily, and will remain a “park and ride” commuting location.

The shopping shuttle will continue to serve the Glenville Wal-Mart and its current Schenectady city stops, and add stops at Yates Village, Price Rite, the Woodlawn Senior Center and Mohawk Harbor. The service will operate once a day the first and third Tuesdays of each month, instead of the first and third Thursdays.

“Our planning department talked to the senior citizen centers and others who said the demand is there more for Tuesdays,” Watson said. “That’s a positive one in the sense that we are serving more areas.”

Time adjustments are also being made on 14 other routes to improve connections and reliability, CDTA officials said.

CDTA conducts route evaluations annually and makes adjustments three times a year, Watson said.

Watson said the pending changes are posted on the buses, on the CDTA website, and on CDTA’s social media channels. The CDTA customer service center is available by telephone at 518-482-8822 to describe the changes and answer questions.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 518-395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.