Mom, can we blame this on a previous administration? Please??

Anyone who has a half a brain can see that the revenues just aren't there to be profitable. Since it is the government that is the main contributor to the CDTA, it should have been them who should be pulling the plug on the CDTA bus route. Isn't it the governments job to watch over our tax  money?

It's like everything else that government gets involved in. They bail out failing businesses from banks to auto makers to transportation, to REMS! And let's not forget the non-profits too!

It's time someone in government starts to say 'NO'!

You know, if there were something over on Hamburg Street that would draw people there, then maybe CDTA would have more of a reason to have busses go there.  They've been working over there for so long on fixing things up (or pretending to with grants from the IDA) that you would think that something would be happening.  Fact is, this area has been totally decimated by the fact that no one is paying attention to anything that happens over there.  Until the former Grand Union is up and doing SOMETHING and I don't really know or care what has to go there, as long as it pulls people into the area, there will be no recovery in this area.  It appears that this is the only place that there really can be much of an improvement on this street.

Don't forget, CVS will soon be vacant too.

Maybe the wine shop can expand, I hear he's doing VERY well (he's got a lot of free time to play on the internet, just like his buddy DeMeo) ... do we know sombody who works there that we could ask?

Quoted from Kevin March

You know, if there were something over on Hamburg Street that would draw people there, then maybe CDTA would have more of a reason to have busses go there.  They've been working over there for so long on fixing things up (or pretending to with grants from the IDA) that you would think that something would be happening.  Fact is, this area has been totally decimated by the fact that no one is paying attention to anything that happens over there.  Until the former Grand Union is up and doing SOMETHING and I don't really know or care what has to go there, as long as it pulls people into the area, there will be no recovery in this area.  It appears that this is the only place that there really can be much of an improvement on this street.

if we build it they will come....if we build the sewers/sidewalks the businesses will come, if the business build the shoppers will come, if the business build the jobs will
come,  if the shoppers shop the tax revenue will come...and on and on and on.....

the only part I disagree with is the grand union being ANYTHING.....I DONT WANT TO SEE/SMELL/HEAR ANOTHER DOLLAR/DISCOUNT STORE......

and if I were a buisness owner who has donted over and over and over again to RLL I'd be pissed and want to shove it up JD's butt and the rest of the
idiot gumbas.......

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
CDTA to consolidate city bus routes
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.

    The Capital District Transportation Authority plans to consolidate nine Schenectady neighborhood bus routes into four crosstown routes in late May, officials announced.
    They will outline the plan at an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. March 23 in the McChesney Room at the Schenectady County Public Library central branch, 99 Clinton St.
    CDTA spokeswoman Margo Janack said the consolidation will expand bus service until midnight; add more connections to major employers, such as Ellis Medicine, Price Chopper, Union College, Northwoods and the Rotterdam Industrial Park, and to medical services, grocery stores, social services and shopping centers; and reduce the need for transfers and eliminate one-way loops, zigzags and other inconsistent route patterns.
    “We have been speaking with residents and customers who ride the bus about expanding services in Schenectady for the last two years,” Janack said. “We found out their transit priorities and how they viewed expansion.” .............>>>>................................>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01301&AppName=1

Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
CDTA adds line for Hamburg St.
Outcry led to restructuring change
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Bus service on Hamburg Street has been given a reprieve.
    Officials with the Capital District Transportation Authority have added a fifth commuter line that will make stops on Hamburg Street four times during the morning and evening. The new line will operate Monday through Friday and is aimed at appeasing some of the critics of CDTA’s route restructuring, which is scheduled to take effect in late May.
    “What we’re proposing is to offer two trips in the morning and two in the afternoon to help with the commute,” said Margo Janack, a spokeswoman for the authority.
    The line —now called the 358 route —will run north from Price Chopper on Altamont Avenue to a stop on Hamburg Street and Curry Road. Buses will also make stops on State Street and McClellan Street near the Ellis Hospital campus and then proceed to Fulton Avenue near Sheridan Village.
    CDTA will use the new line to replace the 53 route now running along Hamburg Street. Authority officials initially proposed eliminating bus service along the commercial corridor as a measure to reduce operating expenses. ..........>>>>...............>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01304&AppName=1

Quoted Text

CDTA revamps some of its routes
Leaner but more efficient system serves Schenectady, surrounding communities

By ERIC ANDERSON BUSINESS EDITOR
First published in print: Friday, May 14, 2010


Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspS.....4/2010#ixzz0ntv1WigS
.........>>>>.........>>>>...........The new routes carry a three-number designation beginning with a 3, which signifies they're in Schenectady County and are neighborhood or express routes. Routes beginning with a 1 are in Albany County, those with a 2 are in Rensselaer County, and those with a 4 are in Saratoga County. Core trunk routes continue to carry two-digit designations.

The new routes are:

• #351, Van Vranken/Broadway, covering Yates Village, Northwoods, Union College and the Department of Social Services and Rotterdam Industrial Park;

• #352, McClellan Street/Altamont Avenue, connecting Ellis Hospital, Sheridan Village, Wal Mart and Price Chopper on Altamont Avenue as well as the Price Chopper on McClellan Street;

• #353, Scotia/Mont Pleasant, connecting the Glenville Walmart, Hamilton Hill and Altamont Avenue, including the Walmart and Hannaford Plaza;

• #354, Rotterdam Square/Nott Street, connecting Ellis Hospital, St. James Plaza, Union College, downtown Schenectady and Rotterdam Square Mall, and;

• #358, Hamburg Street/McClellan Street, connecting Sheridan Village, Ellis Hospital and the hospital's McClellan Campus, and the Price Choppers on McClellan Street and Altamont Avenue.

The route changes take effect May 23. A second phase of changes will increase frequencies, offer seven-day service and extend the hours of service, and will take effect when additional funding becomes available. CDTA said it hopes that when both phases are implemented, the changes will boost Schenectady area ridership by 40 percent.

Core routes, such as #55 connecting Schenectady and Albany, and #70 connecting Schenectady and Troy, remain unchanged.

Carm Basile, CDTA's executive director, thanked Mayor Brian Stratton and his staff for their support. Stratton was elsewhere in the Proctors complex hosting a group of visiting mayors.

Ray Gillen, commissioner of economic development and planning for Schenectady County and chair of the Metroplex Development Authority, and Mary Ivey, Region I director for the state Department of Transportation, both touted the environmental advantages of mass transit.

"I'm very encouraged with the green amenities that CDTA provides," Ivey said.

Gillen said Schenectady was positioning itself as a green community, and that GE had made a big commitment by locating its renewable energy headquarters in the city.

"The CDTA initiative ... helps us become more green," Gillen said............>>>>..........>>>>.............Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspS.....4/2010#ixzz0ntuRU9Pr

You can see the green amenities just popping up everywhere, in the middle of the roads we have trees starting to grow in the potholes, grass and brush growing up in all the vacant lots and buildings all over the city, and the only green that's missing is the money needed to lower taxes and create jobs.

Quoted from Shadow

You can see the green amenities just popping up everywhere, in the middle of the roads we have trees starting to grow in the potholes, grass and brush growing up in all the vacant lots and buildings all over the city, and the only green that's missing is the money needed to lower taxes and create jobs.

Good one shadow!!! And so true!

Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
Too few riders on CDTA Hamburg Street run
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.

An empty Capital District Transit Authority bus paused by a stop between the dormant Grand Union building and the E-Z Wash laundromat before rambling south down Hamburg Street without a single passenger.
    Several minutes later, the northbound bus on the 358 route pulled up to a vacant CDTA shelter near the Rotterdam Senior Center across the street. The driver conceded Tuesday evening’s service was a bit slower than normal, but not by much.
    On most days, the bus has only a handful of riders. The most passengers the driver could recall over the past year was an evening when eight people were on board for the ride down Hamburg Street.
    “That’s the busiest,” he said before heaving the doors shut and pulling off.
    The lack of ridership is once again threatening bus service along the commercial corridor, less than a year after Rotterdam residents petitioned to save it. By the authority’s count, the 358 route carries roughly two dozen riders per day and is the only poor-performing line among those that restructured in Schenectady County in April.
    Overall, ridership has grown by 19 percent along the routes, according to CDTA. Spokeswoman Margo Janack said bus service along Hamburg Street has about half of the “rides per revenue hour” seen elsewhere in the county, which is a prime indicator that the line isn’t sustaining itself.
    “That’s less than half of the minimum threshold in terms of what’s considered productive ridership,” she explained.
    Officials from CDTA approached the Rotterdam Town Board last month in an attempt to warn them of the potential elimination of service along Hamburg Street, and to try to get the town to drum up ridership. And they plan to make the same presentation to members of the Hamburg Street Merchants Association during their meeting early next month.
    Changes to the route could mean eliminating service along Hamburg Street or axing the route altogether. Janack said it’s too soon to tell. “It just doesn’t seem to be attracting as many people as we had hoped,” she said.
    CDTA originally planned to eliminate what was once known as the 53 route. But town offi cials and residents objected to the change.
    About four dozen riders signed a petition to save service along Hamburg Street, which is fl anked by the densely populated Highbridge and Coldbrook neighborhoods. The outpouring of support for the service prompted CDTA to divert a bus along what was once part of the 53 route.
    Norm Miller, a member of CDTA’s Board of Trustees, said the advocates for bus service along the 358 route need to start riding the bus with greater frequency if they expect it to survive the authority’s budget next spring. He said businesses or the town could also take steps to support the route, such as purchasing blocks of tickets and offering them back to residents at reduced rates.
    “It’s a marriage,” he said of the authority’s relationship with the town. “It takes two to do this.”
    Supervisor Frank Del Gallo and Deputy Robert Godlewski did not return calls for comment Tuesday. Attempts to reach Skip Renaud, the chairman of the merchants association, were unsuccessful. ..........................>>>>...........................>>>>...........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01400&AppName=1

Death Ray stated that "Schenectady is positioning itself as a green community"-ROTFLMAO! More like a lack of green community. The lowest median household income in the entire area. But its OK to raise City taxes another 6%. County taxes are going up too-despite the election blarney from Landslide Savage.

     Expect all the usual suspects to kvetch and moan about eliminating an unneeded bus line. Not much demand to go to the boarded up Grand Union? None of them would be caught dead on a bus. That's for you-never them. When's the last time Mayor SOS, Tonko, Landslide or Death Ray took a bus? They would never leave their taxpayer funded vehicles to ride with the great unwashed.

I still scratch my head wondering.........isn't there such a thing as a 'small bus'? I see these huge beasts blocking traffic with 4-6 people on these buses. Again......another government subsidized program that wastes money.

They do have small buses, maybe not for only a half dozen, but the bus on Hamburg is almost always one of those small ones.  But from what a friend of mine tells me, they could better put those small ones on the shuttle service in Albany where people stand,   The smaller shuttle buses could do Hamburg.

But I was watching one of the town meetings, some woman said they have two buses going down Altamont Ave and CDTA could have one of those buses do the "loop"  i.e. AltAltamont, Curry and Hamburg and then it continues to/from along Duane Ave and on to Ellis Hospital and beyond.  Why can't CDTA figure that one out.  

I would think some subsidy is needed, if it was all private, there would be no buses and many people would be out of jobs because they can't get to them.  THink of the businesses along Altamont and Curry, can people who work in those low wage jobs afford a house to move out here to work?  But at least people are working and $10 per cab trip would be $100 a week for transportation to and from work, which doesn't make it worthwhile, but then, if they went on unemployment, they'd be directed to take any job offerred to them and unemployment doesn't care whether you have transportation or not.  

I'd rather see money help subsidize buses rather than give 100% tax exemptions to the millionaires downtown.  Heck, those millionaires don't pay much more than minimum wage.  I do say help the buses, not have tax dollars totally support them

Quoted from bumblethru

I still scratch my head wondering.........isn't there such a thing as a 'small bus'? I see these huge beasts blocking traffic with 4-6 people on these buses. Again......another government subsidized program that wastes money.

The guy from the CDTA that came to the November Town Board meeting .. claimed that it costs just as much
to run a small bus as a big bus.   I don't believe that for a minute but that is what he said.
  
Also, he said last spring - at another town board meeting - that the increase in ridership overall was raising the cost of CDTA's operations.  I dispute that statement just on the fact that if you were running a bus at say
20% occupancy and another at 70% occupancy  -- the cost is the same but the one with MORE riders should
be taking in MORE revenue.   Unless of course, they are operating in some bizarre parallel universe.