Over the past few years, shuttle and intercity services between Connecticut cities has shown increasing ridership, even though intra-city bus ridership is declining.

Philip Fry of CT Transit’s Stamford division told the Campaign his system saw annual ridership drop by 292,192 riders, or 8.4%, from fiscal 2001 to 2004. The Stamford Advocate reported that ridership buses in Norwalk and Westport is also declining. From 2000 to 2003, ridership fell by over 30% in each city.

While bus numbers in cities are falling, the ridership on the Greenwich commuter train shuttle is increasing. The station access service provides western and central loops that connect to Metro-North trains during morning and afternoon rush hours. The Advocate said annual ridership for the service rose from 43,734 in 2000 to 53,847 in 2003. Officials attribute the increase to former drivers trying to avoid traffic headaches on I-95 and elsewhere in Fairfield County.

Numbers were also up 13.4 % from 2001 to 2003 on the "I-Bus" express service between Stamford and White Plains. The Advocate also reported monthly ridership on the Route 7 "7 link" bus between Norwalk and Danbury is up 29% compared to 2002. The service was started by ConnDOT in 2002 in order to reduce congestion on the roadway.

The higher transit use is a good sign in terribly congested corridors through the suburbs, but declining urban bus use appears to confirm the economic stress and ongoing hollowing-out of Connecticut’s cities. 

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