CDTA Receives $15 million grant for Radio Communications System

ALBANY, N.Y. (September 9, 2014) – Senator Charles E. Schumer announced today the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) will receive $15 million dollars in funding from the Department of Transportation’s TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) Grant Program. The funding is the first ever TIGER Award for the Capital Region and will be used to create a new state-of-the-art radio communications system to support CDTA’s growing ridership and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Network.

CDTA Board Chairman David M. Stackrow said, “We want to first thank Senator Schumer for his continued support of CDTA, and his diligence in securing funds to support area businesses, universities and residents. 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. The funding will transform CDTA’s system by replacing its outdated dispatch and vehicle communication system with a new, state-of-the-art “nerve center” that will enable the entire system, including Bus Rapid Transit lines, to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. The project will dramatically upgrade CDTA’s dispatching and vehicle communications technology, improving transit service safety, reliability, and efficiency.

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer said, “This complete technological overhaul is a key piece of CDTA’s efforts to expand its Bus Rapid Transit options. 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.

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.