CHIEF Executive Officer's Message

Dear Friends:

Welcome to the Capital District Transportation Authority’s website. Our team of nearly 650 employees is proud to continue serving as the Capital Region with quality, innovative public transit services. Ridership is as high as we have seen in some time as our services transport more than 55,000 customers each weekday. We ended our fiscal year 2013 with more than 15.5 million rides, one of the highest ridership totals in history!

As we look forward, the goals of growing ridership and revenue remain constant. Our Universal Access program is stronger than ever as nearly one in four riders now boards CDTA with their university or employer ID card. This works for colleges and businesses because it is affordable to the students and employee, allows the Capital Region to further sustainable initiatives and connects customers to everything from internships, to shopping to job opportunities.

The ridership increases have brought many of our trunk routes near capacity and our Board of Directors will be reviewing service enhancements that we hope can roll out in the near future. We continue to advocate for increased funding that would allow us to accommodate our growing customer base. Increased funding could lead to the introduction of articulated buses that bend in the middle, expansion of Bus Rapid Transit services or reducing frequency on our strongest routes so they come more often.

BusPlus recently celebrated its second anniversary with ridership now reaching nearly 1.6 million annually. In fact, Route 5 service checked in at nearly 4 million riders last year. We are looking at expansion plans for BusPlus service to the River Corridor (Route 32 between Albany and Troy) and the Washington/Western corridor (between Albany, Harriman Campus, UAlbany and Crossgates Mall). The goal is to coordinate a 40-mile Bus Rapid Transit network that will provide quicker, one seat rides to more destinations.

Our customers are telling us more than ever what they like and what they don’t like and we love that benefit of social media. We invite you to join the conversation and let us know how we are doing. Whether you like us on facebook, follow us on twitter, or even do it the old fashioned way with a letter or a phone call, we want to hear how we are doing.

We will continue to improve service delivery, make it easy to get fare products all while we do our job of connecting you to what matters. This is a great time to try the new CDTA; with more flexibility and better value, we are a driving the Capital Region forward

We look forward to serving your transportation needs now and into the future.

Cordially,

Carm Basile

Chief Executive Officer