UCAT Ridership Up, Additional Improvements Made from Feedback
KINGSTON, N.Y. – Ulster County announced UCAT bus ridership has sharply risen since the July 1st expansion with Citibus. After reviewing the data and hearing community feedback, County Executive Pat Ryan announced several new initiatives; a new service area, a help hotline, adjusted bus times, and a new public outreach campaign.
Additional coverage will be added for the Ponck Hockie area through the Blue Route. In addition, the Yellow and Blue Routes have been adjusted to more accurately reflect travel time. Since the July 1st expansion, UCAT has seen over 2,500 new riders within the City of Kingston.
The help hotline has been established to assist residents with route changes and for community members to offer suggestions about the new services. The County has committed to sending route and services changes to all city residents in anticipation of these new changes starting July 22nd.
Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan
“Since the UCAT expansion, we have seen a significant increase in ridership. While this is great news, we are also listening to residents and responding to their needs to ensure that we offer the best possible service to residents. These changes will better ensure timely stops and provide services to needed areas.”
Since July 1st, all routes within the City of Kingston are free through 2019 and riders will have access to free Wi-Fi. Through the expansion, new routes have been developed based on ridership data along with survey responses. In addition, Demand Response zones have been created to service riders outside the immediate transit coverage area to a transfer hub in order to connect with regular bus routes.
Riders can download the UCAT app (available at Google Play and Apple iTunes) which provides real-time location of the buses, estimated arrival times, arrival notifications, route maps and schedules. In addition, the new weekday and Saturday routes and schedules for buses in Kingston can be viewed online at http://ulstercountyny.gov/ucat/bus-schedules
To reach out to the help hotline call 845-334-8135.
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