Plans to expand a bus rapid transit system along the busy Interstate 287 corridor and across Westchester County have taken a step forward, propelled by recently announced state funding.
State and area municipal officials on Aug. 16 announced that $13.5 million in state money will be used to extend the state Department of Transportation”™s planned bus rapid transit service through White Plains and into Port Chester.
Aimed to improve the reliability and convenience of traditional buses, bus rapid transit is a public transport system that includes dedicated roadways, off-board fares and traffic-signal priority that would keep lights green as buses approach.
Called the Lower Hudson Transit Link, the state”™s planned bus service would connect riders from Suffern in Rockland County across the Hudson River and into Westchester, making more than a dozen stops along the way. Prior to the recent announcement, the transit system was expected to make its final stop in White Plains.
The recent round of funding will be used to purchase new buses, pay for intersection and infrastructure improvements along the route, make traffic signal upgrades and provide bus shelters.
The state money will also be used to create new stations at Bryant Avenue, Corporate Park Drive, Brook Lane, North Regent, Haseco Avenue and the Port Chester Metro-North Railroad station.
“Our communities rely on affordable and sustainable transit options to ensure our connections to local businesses, educational and recreational opportunities that support families in our county,” said state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, during a press conference at the White Plains Metro-North train station. “In order to keep up this work, we must make the necessary investments to keep New Yorkers moving.”
The part of the project that will connect White Plains to Port Chester is expected to cost roughly $27 million, state Assemblywoman Amy Paulin said at the press conference. “We expect that the state funding will leverage enough federal funding that we can get the project done,” she said.
Paulin, a Scarsdale Democrat who chairs the Assembly energy committee, said the new transit system will also help the state reach its long-term goal of decreasing carbon emissions statewide by 80 percent by 2050.
“When we invest in mass transit, we invest in our community, in the environment, and everyone benefits,” added Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, a Greenburgh Democrat.
Officials assert that the new transit system will be a boon for job growth and for the economy in the Hudson Valley.
Set to begin in October 2018, the first phase of the Lower Hudson Transit Link will include scrapping the existing Tappan ZEExpress bus service, the Rockland County commuter bus system that connects Rockland communities with Tarrytown and White Plains, and replacing it with bus rapid transit.
The state is in the process of securing an operator for the new system, Paulin said.
Officials said the White Plains to Port Chester rapid transit initiative would be put in place shortly thereafter, though no timelines have been set.
“Without having this connection on the I-287 corridor, what we”™re basically saying is this is a corridor for people who can afford to drive and have access to a car,” said Veronica Vanterpool, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “We want to deliver the message that we are inclusive in the Hudson Valley, that we are inclusive in New York state, and mass transportation is one way of developing and delivering that inclusivity.”
The initiative is the result of a 2014 report developed by a mass transit task force assembled by the state. The 31-member task force – made up of members of the business, transit and political communities – recommended that upgrades in the region”™s transit system should include bus rapid transit. The group in its report outlined seven new bus rapid transit lines in Westchester, Rockland and Bronx counties, including three across the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The new bus lines were just one portion of the task force”™s report, which also recommended updates to existing bus lines and additional studies and infrastructure improvements.
In October 2015, the state Department of Transportation received a $10 million federal grant to help fund the Lower Hudson Transit Link.
