The Capital District Transportation Authority held its annual State of CDTA event Tuesday in Albany.
Chief Executive Officer Carm Basile says soaring bus ridership, a proliferation of 400 new e-bikes and a mission to reimagine mobility and transportation across the region have become CDTA’s hallmarks.
“Through the end of February CDTA ridership is more than 100% of what it was before the pandemic began," said Basile. "It's 20% more than last year. We'll end the year with more than 16 million boardings, one of our highest ridership counts in the last 20 years.”
Speaking at CDTA heaquarters in Albany, Basile says CDTA is now operating eight zero-emission electric buses and 12 more are on order. He adds CDTA's 40 miles of bus rapid transit routes coupled with the Authority's Universal Access initiative have changed the way people think about getting from here to there.
“BRT lines, though, are really public works projects, because they include new sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic signal priority systems, and with the purple line, we built a roundabout at Crossgates Mall," Basile said. "If you would have told me 10 years ago that CDTA would construct a roundabout, I'd look at you like you had three heads and say 'you've got to be kidding.' But even that was included in this innovative project.”
Basile says "mobility hubs" are being constructed in Albany and Troy that are sized to the neighborhoods that they will serve.
“Basically, it's a meeting place for all of our services, buses, bikes, cars. So you don't need a car if you're living close to one of those mobility centers. So things like that. And we're starting to look towards the possibility of an additional facility garage somewhere in our service area,” said Basile.
Hudson Valley Community College President Roger Ramsammy says as technology advances, the college has partnered with CDTA to bolster workforce development.
“And one of the strategies is that they have partnered with the college to help us get a major grant from the government," Ramsammy said. "$8 million towards our 130,000-square foot workforce training building. This building is going to be 60% all EV mechanics, that is to service CDTA, to make sure that they have the required skills. More importantly, our partnership is working on a plan that actually bring a lot of students who we call the invisible workforce. And who is the invisible workforce? Those that are willing and able but are often overlooked. So a partnership helps us to dig deep into the neighborhood, through our faith based leadership, and find those kids who we will bring into our workforce training center to get short term training, long term training and degree training, almost tripling the output of how much students we currently do into this kind of field.”
Basile says one of CDTA's newest offerings complements rail travel into the Rensselaer train station.
“Flex plus is an on-demand service that will connect the train station with that is connecting the train station with downtown Albany. Very interesting software platform that it operates on. The software platform integrates Amtrak train schedules with the flex plus schedule. So think about the possibilities there. You get on a you get on a train in Manhattan. You download our app, you order your ride, you pay for your ride, and the vehicle is there waiting for you when you walk off your train and onto the platform,” Basile said.
According to CDTA, it has 750 employees, a budget of $125 million and a fleet of 330 buses and vehicles.
