That’s how I look at it. I think there was just one passenger on the Monday, when the service started. Then I rode the bus on Tuesday and Wednesday, and there was me and one other passenger. A third passenger got on Thursday. Today, Friday, there were 9 passengers on the bus – almost up to a sustainable ride count. It will be interesting to see how things are next week. Maybe by the time we reach the end of February the bus will be packed.
More then half of the spaces in the Park and Ride Lot were filled this morning. That’s encouraging.
I know it’s off-peak, but some of it is the fault of CDTA not doing a very good job at promoting the new buses along the Voorheesville Route. They could do a lot better job at promoting bus ridership, especially to suburban commuters. I believe there is a lot of demand for express buses if they could only explain to people the benefits and ease of riding the bus.
Maybe they should have done more advertising – either television or radio. That’s expensive, but a good way to reach out to people. That said, the most effective way to reach people is direct mail. They could have mailed everyone a bus schedule within a ¼ mile of the new Route 719. Throw in a free day pass as an added perk, as the lost revenue would be minimal. It probably wouldn’t have cost more than $10,000 or so – a reasonable proposition especially if you’re planning on investing and building the bus service over the long-term.
They could have also put big banners at the Park and Ride, and maybe even signs at select bus stops saying “More Buses Here Soon! See www.cdta.org”. But by not fully pushing the bus service, they have failed to maximize the possible ridership and are potentially dooming the additional service to failure.
