The Capital District Transportation
Authority (CDTA) is getting $15 million
in funding from the U.S. Department of
Transportation’s TIGER (Transportation
Investment Generating Economic Recovery)
grant program.
It will be used to create a new state-ofthe-
art radio communications system to
support CDTA’s growing ridership and Bus
Rapid Transit (BRT) network, according to
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer.
CDTA serves Saratoga, Albany, Rensselaer
and Schenectady counties and has ridership
over more than 15 million annually.
The funding is the first-ever TIGER
award for the Capital Region, he said.
“We want to first thank Sen. Schumer
for his continued support of CDTA, and his
diligence in securing funds to support area
businesses, universities and residents,”
said CDTA board Chairman David M. Stackrow.
“We are a stronger place because of it
and are thrilled to be honored as the first
TIGER Award in New York’s Capital Region.”
CDTA will receive the funding from the
highly competitive TIGER grant program,
which supports projects that achieve national
transportation objectives, according
to Schumer. The funding will transform
CDTA’s system by replacing its outdated
dispatch and vehicle communication system
with a new, state-of-the-art “nerve center” that will enable the entire system,
including Bus Rapid Transit lines, to communicate
in real-time.
Officials said the project will dramatically
upgrade CDTA’s dispatching and vehicle
communications technology, improving
transit service safety, reliability, and
efficiency.
“This complete technological overhaul
is a key piece of CDTA’s efforts to expand
its Bus Rapid Transit options,” Schumer
said. “BRT lines need advanced technology
systems managing and timing traffic lights,
so the lines can run as quickly as possible,
and this federal funding will enable CDTA
to build a system that will do just that.”
The development of this new “nerve center”
will enable CDTA to better integrate its
dispatching and communications systems
with a larger effort to achieve 40 miles of
BRT service in the Capital Region. The first
17 miles of BRT was successfully launched
in April 2011 and has resulted in a 20 percent
increase in ridership, Schumer said.
The TIGER Discretionary Grant program
provides opportunity for DOT to invest in
road, rail, transit and port projects that
promise to achieve critical national objectives.
In each round of TIGER, DOT receives
applications to build and repair critical
pieces of freight and passenger transportation
networks.