A new report by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli analyzed on-time performance of the four major upstate New York transportation authorities and found inconsistent results. Only the Rochester region exceeded its target for on-time bus performance. Bus services in the Buffalo area and Capital Region showed mixed results in meeting goals, while Central New York does not publish an on-time performance metric.
“Getting to work, school and appointments on-time is essential for New Yorkers who rely on bus service every day,” DiNapoli said. “Tracking timeliness of bus service is the first step toward improving performance for these critical public transportation systems. Each of the authorities should examine their metrics, identify where performance is falling short and understand the causes of buses arriving too early or late. Many New Yorkers count on this service and deserve reliable buses.”
On-time Standards and Goals
Three of the four major transportation authorities publicly report on-time performance goals. Targets range from 88% for the Rochester Genessee Regional Transportation Authority’s (RGRTA) to 80% for the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA). The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) sets a goal of 84%, while the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority (CENTRO) does not appear to have a publicly stated goal.
Definitions of “on-time” differ among the agencies. RGRTA considers a bus on-time if it arrives up to six minutes late, compared to five minutes for CDTA and four for NFTA.
RGRTA serves eight counties in the Finger Lakes Region, with an estimated population of almost 1.4 million residents. The authority has 10 subsidiaries, but 95.6% of its ridership comes from Regional Transit Service which provides transportation in the City of Rochester and the surrounding area. While its performance has some variability, it is consistently above 89%, with a low of 89.6% in 2016 and a high of 93.6% in 2015.
NFTA, which provides transportation to the 1.8 million residents of Erie and Niagara counties in Western New York, met its 84% on-time goal only twice between 2015 to 2024, dropping since the pandemic to 81.2% in 2024. The authority tracks performance improvements year-over-year and met its alternative goal in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023.
CDTA provides transportation to seven counties, with an estimated population of almost 1.4 million residents, and reports on-time bus performance data on a monthly basis over a 24-month period. Historical data is not available, and long-term service trends cannot be evaluated as a result. From July 2023 through January 2026, results ranged from 66.7% to 77.7%, below its 80% target and lower than the other systems analyzed.
CENTRO operates in five counties in Central New York and serves almost 1.1 million residents, the fewest of all the systems. The authority recently provided limited route specific on-time bus performance data for individual routes as part of a study evaluating the system. On-time performance ranged between 61.9 to 91.4%.
Ten-Year Ridership Trend
During the COVID-19 pandemic, transportation authorities faced significant challenges when their operations were disrupted, ridership plummeted and revenues were severely reduced, as documented in a previous report by DiNapoli. While all four authorities increased ridership since 2021, only CDTA surpassed its pre-pandemic ridership levels through 2024. Prior to the pandemic, ridership for the transportation authorities was already in decline. By 2024 CENTRO provided almost 7.3 million trips, about 77% of its 2014 ridership. NFTA and RGRTA had recovered roughly 60% of their 2014 ridership.
Funding
The four transportation authorities are heavily reliant on public funding. The state provides the largest share, between 48.7% (NFTA) to 63.3% (CENTRO). After state funds, NFTA and RGRTA are more dependent on local government support (more than 24.4% each) while CDTA and CENTRO rely on fares and other directly generated funds as their second largest source of funding. Federal subsidies/grants account for between 9.1% to 15.2% of total revenues.
While overall operating revenue has increased, led by state investment, the larger budgetary picture is uncertain for some of the authorities. With the expiration of pandemic-era federal relief aid and ridership still lagging pre-pandemic levels, some of the authorities have been experiencing financial shortfalls. CDTA closed a $2.7 million budget deficit in 2025 through service cuts and reduced frequency on certain bus lines (even as its ridership levels have recovered). In 2025, RGRTA warned that without additional state support or the ability to bring in additional local revenues, it would have to resort to service cuts to its least utilized routes.
DiNapoli’s report found that riders would benefit from improvements in how information is shared by the authorities. Being more transparent and timelier with data could give residents a better sense of their performance and whether the services being provided are effectively meeting their needs.
Report
Waiting for the Bus: Upstate Transportation Systems’ On-time Bus Performance