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CDTA Executive Director, Stephen Bland

Q: Do 35,000 people board CDTA buses every day? “That’s been the weekday number and recently it’s been increasing. Weekends vary. It will depend on events in colleges. It’s in the 10-15,000 range. We operate between 7-8 million miles per year. That includes the city buses and the STAR door-to-door service.” Q: With over 250 vehicles, how much fuel is used? “Probably on the order of 1.8 million gallons of fuel.”

Stephen Bland CDTA Executive Director

Q: $2,100,000 per year?
“That’s the budget number (laugh). Unfortunately, with most of our budgets with respect to fuel it was thrown totally out the window over the last few months. At the current rate, we’ll probably end up at about $900,000 over budget. This time last year, we budgeted $1.50 saying, ‘Oh, this is conservative. We’ll make money here.’ Now because of the recent fuel price spikes, we’ll be up above that.”

Q: Where do you get your fuel?
“On an annual basis, in November, we go out to bid for fuel. You can go out and buy for fixed prices, but you’re essentially asking the supplier to absorb all the risk associated with price fluctuation. Over a long period of time you end up paying more doing that because you’re buying the security. This year (laugh), it would have been nice to lock in at $1.50. Now we’re looking at locking in smaller percentages, trying to at least stabilize that portion of the budget.”

Q: Has CDTA considered using biodiesel?
“Right now the main alternative fuel we have funding in place for, and are in an active procurement with a number of state transit authorities, is to purchase six hybrid electric buses. That’s really the technology we are putting our eggs in at this point. We’ve had people ask us why we don’t do natural gas, biodiesel, what have you. A lot of them have drawbacks. A lot of what we look to in a company like Toyota and Honda is their pumping of billions of dollars into research. When we buy a ‘box’ it’s got to last at least 12 years at a minimum, so we want to make sure that technology is not only still around but is commercially viable.”

Q: Is biodiesel compatible with regular diesel?
“The actual hardware is consistent, but you have to change settings. One of the things that attracts us to hybrid electric is the display that tells you when the battery is working and when you are on gas because what you see is that hybrid electrics work particularly well in our ‘duty cycle’ which is a very urban. You are on battery for a much higher percentage of the time than you would be driving on the thruway. You tend to be on battery mode with regenerative breaking and at low operating speeds. They’re estimating about a 10-year life in the battery packs. If you get that, great. If you don’t get that, that’s probably the most expensive piece of the bus. Where a regular transit bus for us costs $275-300,000, we’re looking at paying between $450-500,000 for hybrid electrics. One of the reasons we were able to do that is because we were able to get some discretionary money through Congressman Sweeney at the federal level and also looking at places like NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research Development Association).

Q: Is CDTA a for-profit company?
“No. It’s what’s referred to as ‘quasi public’. We are not a state agency like the DOT or the Department of Education. We are a quasi state agency created by the legislature, a public authority similar in nature to the Thruway Authority.” “It’s a four-county authority in Rensselaer, Schenectady, Albany, and Saratoga. It’s governed by a nine-member board of directors—three members represent Albany County and two from the other three. Those members are appointed by the Governor and they are affirmed by the State Legislature. It’s an independent authority so we don’t go through say what DOT works through, but we are state regulated and we fall under the auspices of the Governor’s office and the NY State Division of Budget.”

“We own and operate Saratoga Springs train station, the Rensselaer rail station, and we also have access transit services which operate Medicaid brokerage services to Rensselaer and Schenectady counties for their Medicaid transportation program. We take all of that, consolidate an operation together, and about 25% of the operating costs of the authority are paid through user fees. Operating income is from passenger fares, the advertising you see on buses, income from the rail stations, and contract income from the Medicaid contracts we have with the counties. So about 75% is actually unsubsidized, and then all the capital expenses are subsidized—and that’s through a combination of federal funding, state funding through the Department of Transportation, and locally we get matching funds from all four counties.

Q: So passenger fares are only a small percentage?
“That’s true nationwide other than some very unique situations. New York is probably in the middle of the pack when it comes to ‘fare box recovery’—the % of operating costs recovered out of the fare box. We’re generally at the 20% range, about average for the state. New York is a very transit-heavy state.”

Q: What are your ‘Community Engagement’ efforts and how successful are they?
“They’re ongoing. A big effort has been kicking off our Transit Development Plan, which is only the first or second time in the 30-year history of the CDTA that we looked at every single transit service that operates, and asked, ‘What is doing well? What needs to be redesigned? What are some areas that we should be serving that we’re not? What areas are we possibly over-serving? In fact, Monday of this week we did our second ‘community design workshop’.”

Q: How do you inform the public about your meetings?
“Some of it is media driven—press releases, media advisories. Customer notices and handouts on the buses. That works particularly well when it’s a targeted session. For instance, Schenectady operators (bus drivers) will hand out when we have something at the Schenectady library. Lucile Brewer (of Citizens for Transportation) is probably one of our best promoters of participation events. (laugh) I remember at the fare hearing, Lucile was asking for hundreds of the fliers. She said she would go door-to-door if she had to. That’s her personality. She’s going to get the troops out.”

Q: What steps has the CDTA taken to increase security in the Capital of NY State?
“Our list manager has very specific focus on security issues, and it’s systemwide. It’s localized—whether it’s transit system, Rensselaer rail station, or Saratoga Springs station oriented. With the Rensselaer rail station, there’s the Rensselaer County Sheriff, the city police, first responders of all types like Fire and EMS. Recently we did a major simulation exercise and had the FBI involved, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Amtrak, Office of Homeland Security—both state and federal—NY State Police, and the Capitol Police on occasion.”

Q: What are your duties as Executive Director?
“I act as the Chief Executive Officer of the authority and report to the nine-member Board of Directors. My position is about translating the policy direction of the board into the operating processes of the authority.”

Q: Are there plans for a light rail?
“There’s no plans in the imminent horizon for any type of light rail, commuter rail, the normal intercity Amtrak stuff. Going back 5-6 years, under the Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC), a land use study was done, and we looked at that question and incorporated in an advisory function, CDTA, NYSDOT, the five munipalities—City of Albany, Town of Colonie, Village of Colonie, Town of Niskayuna, City of Schenectady—and an advisory group. What came out of that study was that for a number of reasons, not the least being cost, that rail alternatives were eliminated.”

“What we’re trying to advance now ‘Bus Rapid Transit’. It’s essentially taking the bus technology and then putting rail or higher end characteristics on it like integrating global positioning technology—satellite communications—and integrating priority signals at intersections. If the bus is running behind schedule on certain times of the day at certain passenger loads, it will trigger an extended green or trigger an early green by a certain number of seconds. That speeds up travel time. Also, upgraded passenger information, real-time information—so if you are standing at the Lark and Washington stop waiting, like the Washington Metro Subway System, you have the screens.”

Q: What are the benefits of the Park & Ride system?
“Park & Ride is in fact one of the key components of the Route 5 Corridor. It’s really a recognition of the way people live now. Back in the old days when transit was king, everybody lived close together and you walked to the bus stop and you got on to the bus or trolley to your destination. It’s really a recognition that we are not going to do away with the automobile and we gotta work with it. If we can create lots, some of them owned by us, some of them cooperative lots—maybe with a shopping center or church or what have you—we can set aside spaces and recognize that you are going to take your car a few miles from your home to a Park & Ride lot, and then you are going to take the bus to the downtown areas. Then those downtown environments are much more pedestrian friendly. Not just designed for the transit user, it’s for any shared ride. A lot of them have environmental and congestion benefits. Looking at CDTA as not just a bus company, but a regional mobility provider, that’s an important role.

Q: What has been the response to adding bicycle racks?
“There’s actually more than I would have thought. I’ve been on buses even in the middle of winter and seen people put bikes on. I think it will not reach its full potential until we have them on every bus, which we do have plans to do over the next couple of years. There’s demand, but it’s a niche market, without a doubt. It’s also relatively low cost. The bike rack (holding two bikes) costs maybe $400. You put it on once, and it essentially lasts the life of the bus.”

Q: Some say bus service ends too early. How do you address those concerns?
How should people express them?
“We’re really looking at demand. The Transit Development Plan—and there’s a section on the website (www.cdta.org) dedicated to the plan—so I suggest that folks interested check the website. There’s email contacts there for mailing lists, so as transit is developing, you can get direct mail including meeting and workshop announcements and different milestones of the plan.”

“Obviously, the ideal transit system is one where the bus or train goes everywhere often, at all times through the day and night. We don’t make a profit. For every dollar we spend, somebody needs to give us four. For every dollar we get from a rider, we need to get four dollars from somebody else. It’s always a constrained resource. So there’s the balancing act between putting the 55 Corridor on 24-hour service—which means we may have to eliminate a route over here, or cut frequency over there. We’re actually doing much better with our fare collection system that went in about two years ago, and the global positioning system, which has integrated into it automatic passenger counting, and we’re getting much better data on where people are getting on and off, where they’re going, that type of thing. As we are able to take all of that data and turn it into information, we will be better able to make more informed decisions. The same way that all politics is local, all transit service is local.”

Q: Why is the Swiper Card “Half-fare” program not available to seniors under age 65?
“Under federal law we are required to offer half fare during off peak hours to senior citizens aged 65 or older and persons with disabilities. We are following the normal federal definition for the age of senior citizens.”

Q: Are there any deals for students?
“There are the youth fares. We have partnerships with RPI, UAlbany, and Saint Rose, where students have certain transit benefits.” Margo Janack, Manager of Corporate Communications, added that the Ticket to Ride program for kids age 16 and under who can ride from June through August for $17.95 is also available.

Q: Any thoughts on working with businesses to help sponsor shelter building and maintenance?
“In some cases that does occur. The criteria applied is a local sponsor willing to support ongoing maintenance. We have two issues with shelters. They cost money install, but they cost more to maintain. Maintenance includes cleaning and repair. We’ve had instances where shelters are continuously vandalized. So that’s another community issue.”

Q: What is the biggest concern you get from riders?
“The biggest concerns and complaints tend to be more service quantity, rather than quality. So, the need for the bus to run later, or to run here or there. Even the high ridership routes require subsidy. The STAR service is very important, and also very expensive. We collect $2 from a rider, and on average it costs us $28 to provide that trip. That is a mandated service. We don’t have a choice. Anyone who is eligible to use that service has to get that trip. And we’ve seen over the last four years a 12% annual ridership increase.” “Everybody had really great ideas, and they are great ideas for what we should be doing. The challenge, though, is that they come with price tags, and some of those price tags are pretty expensive.”

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