Riverduckexpress wrote:The Albany-Rensselaer station really needs more bus service. ... only two bus routes serve the station; one route runs hourly on Saturdays, doesn't run on Sundays and the other runs every 70 mins(!) on the weekend.
What's most ironic about this is that CDTA generally has a reputation for providing good if not high quality bus service in the Albany area but the Amtrak station seems to be one of their blind spots.
I talked to the CDTA execs back when the "Albany County bus reorganization" town hall meetings were held to specifically address these problems back when the 114 was just a proposal. It went down like a Seinfeld sketch:
Issue 1. Me: The 114 is great, it will provide a 1 seat ride from several college campuses and much of Albany's midtown to the Amtrak station! But, there's no Sunday service. The most common use of Amtrak among college students is to go down to NYC Friday afternoon/evening and come back Sunday.
CDTA: We want to see how well it does on Saturday before considering Sunday service. Besides, there's the 214.
Me: You realize this logic is akin to a new peak service that only runs mornings, as in "We want to see how many people use it to get
to work before we look at getting them back home the same way they got there."
CDTA:... Fill out a comment form.
Issue 2. Me: The 214 doesn't run past 7PM Sunday. The arrivals from NYC at 7:45 PM, 9:45 PM are always sold out, yet there are no buses for them. These passengers often have to deal with waiting for the first or even second round of taxis to come back before they can get one.
CDTA: Our metrics show there is hardly any bus ridership at the Amtrak station at those times.
Me:... because there's no buses at all. How did you even get "some" ridership, did the 7PM run 3 hours late one Sunday?
CDTA: ... the 214 is considered a Rensselaer county bus and not part of this reorganization.
Here we are 7 years later, the 114 and 214 have had minor routing and schedule changes but nothing at all to address Sundays. I will only drive to the station now.
On a related note, they're closing the station parking garage 4th of July weekend, which almost certainly will result in an overcrowding situation at the surface lots. It would be nice to have a second garage now, I suppose...