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Metro-North Buys New Buses for Hudson Rail Link Service


The railroad marked the launch of its new bus service by serving coffee and pastries to its loyal customers at Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale stations.

Marking 12 years of successful feeder bus service in the Bronx, MTA Metro-North Railroad is introducing a new fleet of ten buses for the popular Hudson Rail Link.

Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale stations are located at the bottom of steep hills impassable by full-size city buses. In addition, parking at the stations is limited. To improve access to these stations from these densely populated residential neighborhoods, Metro-North began the Rail Link in 1991 with a fleet of five 17-passenger vans.

Since then, daily MNR ridership at these two west Bronx stations has increased from 950 in 1991 (when 150 people used the Rail Link service) to about 1,600 today (with 600 people using the service).

With three routes serving Riverdale and two routes serving Spuyten Duyvil, the buses meet every weekday train from 6 a.m. to midnight and carry almost 40 percent of all customers using those stations.

The regular, one-way fare is $2 payable by MetroCard or exact change. However customers who purchase a Uniticket combining monthly Metro-North and Hudson Rail Link fares pay only $23 for the service, a significant saving.

The fleet was first replaced in 1995 with eight transit-type buses. The third generation of buses were manufactured by the Blue Bird Corp. of Fort Valley, Georgia, and purchased at a cost of $135,000 each. The first three were delivered this week with the remaining seven due in April.

Since its inception, the service has been operated under contract by Atlantic Hudson, a subsidiary of Atlantic Express Transportation Corp.

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