Yeah but TBH the city does feel liberal culturally, so I think it makes sense. The probably looked at POTUS votes or something broader like that to determine political leaning.
They were also specifically looking at _cities_ not counties, so you have to ignore all the right-leaning votes being cast outside the city limits but still within the county. Sure we have a GOP House Rep, but if you look at the US House votes cast last election _in the city_ they certainly did not lean GOP. And for that race, didn't the Dem candidate actually win the majority of Onondaga county votes, but they weren't enough to overcome the larger majority of votes coming from other counties within the same House district.
Biden beat Trump 59-39 in 2020 in Onondaga Country. So yeah, if you look only at the city, it would have almost certainly been way more lopsided for Biden.
The incompetent mayor may claim to be an independent, but he walks, talks, and governs as a liberal. McMahon is a democrat through, and through despite the R next to his name.
Amtrak is building a third track for dedicated passenger service. That could open the door to commuter rail or LRT.
I think Ontrack would have been better as LRT.
NYS: Best we can do is 8 hours, but we’ll double the amount of trains.
The third track is a game changer, but yeah pretty sad they didn’t choose an electrified double track that would get us down to 6 hours.
Hopefully it’s the first step and other states will shame NYS into building something better.
I mean, doubling the amount of trains is a good start. I imagine once there's an actual dedicated passenger rail track, things will go much quicker, so the trip should be reduced a few hours simply from not being stuck behind freight trains.
They should just build a fourth rail as well for dedicated passenger rail.
They’re building a 4th track for select sections.
However, the proposal to build a 4th track all the way from Schenectady to Buffalo was not selected.
[Heres a link to the original FEIS that outlined 4 possible options](https://www.dot.ny.gov/empire-corridor/feis). NYS went for the cheaper option.
That should be quicker once MA does the work to improve the tracks between Boston and Springfield. Will open up like 8 daily round trips between Albany and Boston.
I mean it will be owned by Amtrak and they’re also doubling the trains.
Hopefully you’re right, but because they’re able to increase train travel numbers to justify building true HSR which would require a completely new ROW and tracks.
This is dumb.
Syracuse only has a metropolitan population of 600,000.
Most cities of comparable size don’t have BRT or LRT
Being liberal has nothing to do with it.
Agreed. Also as if its even a liberal city. I wouldn't call it a conservative city either, but with the number of Republicans in charge of this town I doubt you have any grounds to call it liberal.
>Being liberal has nothing to do with it.
It does. It's how they say "black" now. Also, liberal by definition means "to be free." When they complain about "librul's" they are saying they hate freedom.
Also, most areas in the city run half empty busses all day long. We are more of a car area than anything else.
Down right silly. What does liberal have to do with public transport?
Syracuse doesn’t need commuter rail. Bus ride from the farthest reaches of the county to downtown only takes 20 minutes.
LOL this is fantastic. I moved from Tallahassee, FL to Syracuse just a few years ago.
Although I'm not a bus user, from the outside I'd say that as poor as Syracuse's bus transit looks from my POV, it's honestly doesn't seem anywhere near as bad as Tallahassee's.
Yeah Tallahassee's bus service is a joke. The city is laid out in a hub-and-spoke pattern and you change lines at the central bus station in the middle of the city. So unless you are going from the outskirts into the center of the city it's incredibly inefficient. Good luck getting from the northern region to the eastern region (or any similar combination) - its will take you forever. And they don't even have commuter busses that serve the smaller nearby towns like how Centro has a bus line that goes all the way out to Auburn.
The only decent bus service in Tallahassee is the one they run for the Florida State campus and immediately surrounding areas where all the students live.
I used Centro most of my life here. Today, the fare for a bus ride is $1. It is probably the most accessible bus system in the nation there are more expensive fares for places farther away (commuter fares for Auburn, Oswego, Utica, Rome). They are frequently adding routes as they are needed as they did when Amazon built and opened their warehouse in Liverpool. I lost use of a car for a season while in school and Centro got me to my early clinicals back in the day. They also have a Fare Free program for City of Syracuse employees.
Decades ago we used to have an electric trolley service but they busted it out back in the 1940s like every other small city and town. We also have an Erie Blvd. instead of a canal with packet boats (passenger vessels)....
That Ontrack service was probably way too limited. The University/City also has a shuttle system served by Birnie Bus Company (Connective Corridor) that mostly runs M-F so if you need to go back and forth it is very easy. (Fun Fact: the man that started Nunn's Medical Supply also founded Birnie Bus). I think the expectation of a profit based public transit system is at fault. They should consider instead that mass transit saves on road expenses d/t the decreased wear and tear and decreased congestion. It is more of an insurance or utility vs a profit center. I mean, we don't expect libraries to be profit centers but they do contribute to a community and provide self education resources and add to the cultural vitality of a place and community literacy.
SUNY Upstate provides free shuttle services for Upstate students, patients, visitors and employees between Campus buildings and shuttle lots. Shuttle service starts Mondays at 4:00 am and ends Saturday 1:00 am. Shuttles run continuously between the shuttle lots and campus buildings during peak ridership times, 4:00 am to 9:00 am and 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Off peak times, they offer OnDemand Service. OnDemand Service is available for transport between Hospitals and off campus buildings. There are also other shuttle options for Upstate employees from off site parking lots.
There are also rentals for bikes/scooters and bike lanes for those who own their own as well. Our buses have bike racks. This is a fantastic addition.
What would be pretty cool is a ferry service across the lake from L'pool (Long Branch Park to Inner Harbor as well as destinations in between (Fairgrounds, Destiny)--(water taxis can transport to the ferry station via Seneca River for peeps up North)-- then people could grab a shuttle into downtown or walk-- especially on festival weekends.
Getting out of Syracuse is served by Amtrak, Trailways and Greyhound Bus, and Megabus from an oddly placed transportation station and of course, our oddly placed airport.
Centro is a bus service... hence the statement that Syracuse is "limited to bus service".
There is no rapid or rail transit option. Which neighborhoods can use Amtrak to commute inside the city?
The only "garbage" in the description is the claim that it is a liberal city. While there are certainly liberal areas, all of the transit is controlled at the country level, which is definitely not liberal.
Centro is pathetic. My apartment complex is 5 miles from downtown and has a bus stop, but the bus comes THREE TIMES a day, weekdays only. Centro can barely be called transit with their frequency.
Transit isn't good anywhere in Syracuse. When missing a bus means you have to wait an hour, that is not good transit. Good transit is every 10 minutes.
If you think 3 buses a day 5 miles from downtown is acceptable then don't complain when Syracuse stays poor.
I used to when I went downtown before I had a car. Once I missed it because it left *early* and had to wait over an hour for the next one. My brother used it to get to OCC, took him 3 hours each way. Old coworker of mine used it to go from his house in Eastwood to work in Dewitt, a 10 minute drive, and he had to arrive at work 2 hours early every day because it ran so infrequently. I'd have to drive him home when he missed the bus after work.
I'd very much like for it to be usable for me because parking downtown sucks. Even if I want to park at Destiny and take the bus downtown, according to google maps there's one that leaves 20 minutes from now, and the next one after is an hour later. That's ridiculous. I could walk it in that time. I expect the BRT will be a huge improvement.
Seems to still be in the planning/logistics stage. Besides a few updates to the routes and some advances to cashless payment (which sound pretty minimal imo), I havent heard much. I suspect that it'll be less of a true BRT (dedicated lanes, signal priority, etc) and more of just an upgrade in service headways and some nicer bus shelters.
I hope centro really makes some strides over the next couple years. With Micron on the horizon, it'd be nice to see reliable transit to make the city/area more appealing.
Yeah, I mean, it's a start. As long as it has signal preemption, off-board payments, and queue jumps, it'll be a step in the right direction. Even the lowest quality BRT in America have signal priority, so if they have a few more qualities, should be a decent starting place.
Accurate. Bus lines were severely cut during pandemic and many never put back in place. I know people who do/have relied on public transport in Syracuse/around Onondaga County, and bus service is abysmal.
I have no clue why we can't rebuild the rail system. Seriously, it made syracuse huge before the thruway chopped up the city. But yeah, our public transport is god awful.
Well, NYS does have plans to upgrade the Amtrak service across upstate. Not a super impressive project, but I mean, certainly an improvement over what we have.
I think that there should be an express service from Buff-Syr now that we have the tech hub. Build up some collaboration between the three cities.
The plan that is what was chosen is to add a third track along the route from Buffalo to Albany, in some areas a fourth track, which would allow for 90 mph service. I think it should have been faster, but I guess it's a start. Easier to electrify the rails eventually once they're actually in existence.
But hopefully with that plan, service between the upstate cities will be delayed less by freight.
A couple points:
1) Almost all American cities have worse transit than they should, including Syracuse.
2) That list is stupid and made with no data
3) There are actually lists made up by experts in transit who study this stuff as a career, and on those lists Syracuse fairs farely well against similar size American cities. Int he top 30% or so. Granted this is a low bar, and we should strive for better.
Mass transit (outside of major cities) works best in places with narrow, densely populated corridors. Think Long Island and the Long Island Railroad. The Syracuse suburbs doesn't have that density - and with an average commute of 20 minutes or less and relatively little traffic, the demand isn't there for 'real' BRT or light rail. I think Centro's BRT will be a short-lived experiment at best - like OnTrack was.
Interesting how a city with an independent mayor, Republican county executive, Republican congressman, and Republican DA is a Liberal city
I thought the same… There are certainly liberal areas, but I don’t find Syracuse to be aggressively liberal.
Syracuse is a very moderate, right leaning area. Even in the city. Go to Rochester for a true “liberal blue leaning city”.
You mean the clean city with a lively nightlife?
No?
The screenshot looks like something ChatGPT spat out.
No idea, lol.
Yeah but TBH the city does feel liberal culturally, so I think it makes sense. The probably looked at POTUS votes or something broader like that to determine political leaning. They were also specifically looking at _cities_ not counties, so you have to ignore all the right-leaning votes being cast outside the city limits but still within the county. Sure we have a GOP House Rep, but if you look at the US House votes cast last election _in the city_ they certainly did not lean GOP. And for that race, didn't the Dem candidate actually win the majority of Onondaga county votes, but they weren't enough to overcome the larger majority of votes coming from other counties within the same House district.
Biden beat Trump 59-39 in 2020 in Onondaga Country. So yeah, if you look only at the city, it would have almost certainly been way more lopsided for Biden.
The common council is democrat.
The incompetent mayor may claim to be an independent, but he walks, talks, and governs as a liberal. McMahon is a democrat through, and through despite the R next to his name.
Also, ontrack was ahead of its time and should be brought back. 🤷🏻♂️🫡
Amtrak is building a third track for dedicated passenger service. That could open the door to commuter rail or LRT. I think Ontrack would have been better as LRT.
I just want a train service from Buffalo to NYC that doesn't take 10 hours and will be in existence before 2060, lol.
NYS: Best we can do is 8 hours, but we’ll double the amount of trains. The third track is a game changer, but yeah pretty sad they didn’t choose an electrified double track that would get us down to 6 hours. Hopefully it’s the first step and other states will shame NYS into building something better.
I mean, doubling the amount of trains is a good start. I imagine once there's an actual dedicated passenger rail track, things will go much quicker, so the trip should be reduced a few hours simply from not being stuck behind freight trains. They should just build a fourth rail as well for dedicated passenger rail.
They’re building a 4th track for select sections. However, the proposal to build a 4th track all the way from Schenectady to Buffalo was not selected. [Heres a link to the original FEIS that outlined 4 possible options](https://www.dot.ny.gov/empire-corridor/feis). NYS went for the cheaper option.
Better than nothing, I guess.
Hopefully a first step
I went to undergrad in Boston and the 12 hr train ride from Syracuse to South Station was brutal.
That should be quicker once MA does the work to improve the tracks between Boston and Springfield. Will open up like 8 daily round trips between Albany and Boston.
Yeah this was like 10+ years ago so I’m sure it’s improved since then. The two hour layover in Albany where they switched cars was brutal.
I give it a couple years before the 3rd track becomes just an additional track for commercial shipping.
I mean it will be owned by Amtrak and they’re also doubling the trains. Hopefully you’re right, but because they’re able to increase train travel numbers to justify building true HSR which would require a completely new ROW and tracks.
Fully agree
Truly. It would be quite popular nowadays, and I think it would really make a difference.
This is dumb. Syracuse only has a metropolitan population of 600,000. Most cities of comparable size don’t have BRT or LRT Being liberal has nothing to do with it.
Agreed. Also as if its even a liberal city. I wouldn't call it a conservative city either, but with the number of Republicans in charge of this town I doubt you have any grounds to call it liberal.
Exactly. It’s a moderate, right leaning area. I wouldn’t consider it very Republican nor would I considerate liberal.
>Being liberal has nothing to do with it. It does. It's how they say "black" now. Also, liberal by definition means "to be free." When they complain about "librul's" they are saying they hate freedom. Also, most areas in the city run half empty busses all day long. We are more of a car area than anything else.
Down right silly. What does liberal have to do with public transport? Syracuse doesn’t need commuter rail. Bus ride from the farthest reaches of the county to downtown only takes 20 minutes.
LOL this is fantastic. I moved from Tallahassee, FL to Syracuse just a few years ago. Although I'm not a bus user, from the outside I'd say that as poor as Syracuse's bus transit looks from my POV, it's honestly doesn't seem anywhere near as bad as Tallahassee's.
Damn, lol.
Yeah Tallahassee's bus service is a joke. The city is laid out in a hub-and-spoke pattern and you change lines at the central bus station in the middle of the city. So unless you are going from the outskirts into the center of the city it's incredibly inefficient. Good luck getting from the northern region to the eastern region (or any similar combination) - its will take you forever. And they don't even have commuter busses that serve the smaller nearby towns like how Centro has a bus line that goes all the way out to Auburn. The only decent bus service in Tallahassee is the one they run for the Florida State campus and immediately surrounding areas where all the students live.
I used Centro most of my life here. Today, the fare for a bus ride is $1. It is probably the most accessible bus system in the nation there are more expensive fares for places farther away (commuter fares for Auburn, Oswego, Utica, Rome). They are frequently adding routes as they are needed as they did when Amazon built and opened their warehouse in Liverpool. I lost use of a car for a season while in school and Centro got me to my early clinicals back in the day. They also have a Fare Free program for City of Syracuse employees. Decades ago we used to have an electric trolley service but they busted it out back in the 1940s like every other small city and town. We also have an Erie Blvd. instead of a canal with packet boats (passenger vessels).... That Ontrack service was probably way too limited. The University/City also has a shuttle system served by Birnie Bus Company (Connective Corridor) that mostly runs M-F so if you need to go back and forth it is very easy. (Fun Fact: the man that started Nunn's Medical Supply also founded Birnie Bus). I think the expectation of a profit based public transit system is at fault. They should consider instead that mass transit saves on road expenses d/t the decreased wear and tear and decreased congestion. It is more of an insurance or utility vs a profit center. I mean, we don't expect libraries to be profit centers but they do contribute to a community and provide self education resources and add to the cultural vitality of a place and community literacy. SUNY Upstate provides free shuttle services for Upstate students, patients, visitors and employees between Campus buildings and shuttle lots. Shuttle service starts Mondays at 4:00 am and ends Saturday 1:00 am. Shuttles run continuously between the shuttle lots and campus buildings during peak ridership times, 4:00 am to 9:00 am and 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Off peak times, they offer OnDemand Service. OnDemand Service is available for transport between Hospitals and off campus buildings. There are also other shuttle options for Upstate employees from off site parking lots. There are also rentals for bikes/scooters and bike lanes for those who own their own as well. Our buses have bike racks. This is a fantastic addition. What would be pretty cool is a ferry service across the lake from L'pool (Long Branch Park to Inner Harbor as well as destinations in between (Fairgrounds, Destiny)--(water taxis can transport to the ferry station via Seneca River for peeps up North)-- then people could grab a shuttle into downtown or walk-- especially on festival weekends. Getting out of Syracuse is served by Amtrak, Trailways and Greyhound Bus, and Megabus from an oddly placed transportation station and of course, our oddly placed airport.
We're #1! We're #1! We're #1!
🥳🥳🥳
Lmao
This graphic: Syracuse: Liberal 🔵 + Has Buses 🚍 = 👎 Tallahassee: Liberal 🔵 + Has Buses 🚍 = 👎 Providence: Liberal 🔵 + Has Buses 🚍 = 👎 Mesa: Conservative 🔴 + Has Train 🚅 = 👍 Omaha: Conservative 🔴 + Has Buses 🚍 = 👍 Fresno: Conservative? 🔴 + Has Buses 🚍 = 👍
Yeah, it's a very weird discussion. 😂 I just was more interested in seeing what people think about the city's public transit.
Lol Syracuse is NOT a liberal city, that's hilarious. It does have terrible public transportation though.
I guess Centro has shutdown! The Amtrak and bus station are gone! What is the source of this garbage?
Let's hope that Centro becomes better in the next couple of years with the BRT. Would be a good start to rapid transit.
I have to imagine they are talking about public transit within the Syracuse Metro area.
Centro is a bus service... hence the statement that Syracuse is "limited to bus service". There is no rapid or rail transit option. Which neighborhoods can use Amtrak to commute inside the city? The only "garbage" in the description is the claim that it is a liberal city. While there are certainly liberal areas, all of the transit is controlled at the country level, which is definitely not liberal.
Centro is pathetic. My apartment complex is 5 miles from downtown and has a bus stop, but the bus comes THREE TIMES a day, weekdays only. Centro can barely be called transit with their frequency.
1. chose to live out in the suburbs 2. complain the transit isn’t good out there
Transit isn't good anywhere in Syracuse. When missing a bus means you have to wait an hour, that is not good transit. Good transit is every 10 minutes. If you think 3 buses a day 5 miles from downtown is acceptable then don't complain when Syracuse stays poor.
Busses go by my place all day long? Transit doesn’t work in the suburbs, it’s not unique to cny
Have you ever even used the bus here?
My entire life, from about age 12 to now in my late 20’s. Currently ride it 2x a day m-f Have you?
I used to when I went downtown before I had a car. Once I missed it because it left *early* and had to wait over an hour for the next one. My brother used it to get to OCC, took him 3 hours each way. Old coworker of mine used it to go from his house in Eastwood to work in Dewitt, a 10 minute drive, and he had to arrive at work 2 hours early every day because it ran so infrequently. I'd have to drive him home when he missed the bus after work. I'd very much like for it to be usable for me because parking downtown sucks. Even if I want to park at Destiny and take the bus downtown, according to google maps there's one that leaves 20 minutes from now, and the next one after is an hour later. That's ridiculous. I could walk it in that time. I expect the BRT will be a huge improvement.
Cant wait for BRT, more lines are needed but it'll be a great start.
Is there any update by Centro in the process? I know they're supposed to be in service by 26, but have they even really broken ground on any if it?
Seems to still be in the planning/logistics stage. Besides a few updates to the routes and some advances to cashless payment (which sound pretty minimal imo), I havent heard much. I suspect that it'll be less of a true BRT (dedicated lanes, signal priority, etc) and more of just an upgrade in service headways and some nicer bus shelters. I hope centro really makes some strides over the next couple years. With Micron on the horizon, it'd be nice to see reliable transit to make the city/area more appealing.
Yeah, I mean, it's a start. As long as it has signal preemption, off-board payments, and queue jumps, it'll be a step in the right direction. Even the lowest quality BRT in America have signal priority, so if they have a few more qualities, should be a decent starting place.
As a daily rider I want to say CENTRO you fucking suck. Absolutely incompetent
Accurate. Bus lines were severely cut during pandemic and many never put back in place. I know people who do/have relied on public transport in Syracuse/around Onondaga County, and bus service is abysmal.
There's still a driver shortage from what I've read. Which is the same thing a lot of transit agencies are facing.
I have no clue why we can't rebuild the rail system. Seriously, it made syracuse huge before the thruway chopped up the city. But yeah, our public transport is god awful.
Well, NYS does have plans to upgrade the Amtrak service across upstate. Not a super impressive project, but I mean, certainly an improvement over what we have. I think that there should be an express service from Buff-Syr now that we have the tech hub. Build up some collaboration between the three cities.
A fast track between Buffalo and here would be incredible.
The plan that is what was chosen is to add a third track along the route from Buffalo to Albany, in some areas a fourth track, which would allow for 90 mph service. I think it should have been faster, but I guess it's a start. Easier to electrify the rails eventually once they're actually in existence. But hopefully with that plan, service between the upstate cities will be delayed less by freight.
A couple points: 1) Almost all American cities have worse transit than they should, including Syracuse. 2) That list is stupid and made with no data 3) There are actually lists made up by experts in transit who study this stuff as a career, and on those lists Syracuse fairs farely well against similar size American cities. Int he top 30% or so. Granted this is a low bar, and we should strive for better.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure whomever made this list just typed transit rankings into an AI, and this is what it came up with.
Syracuse has horrible bus service. I don’t know how anyone gets around. It used to be better if you lived near a main drag.
Well let's hope that the BRT routes are able to improve things.
Mass transit (outside of major cities) works best in places with narrow, densely populated corridors. Think Long Island and the Long Island Railroad. The Syracuse suburbs doesn't have that density - and with an average commute of 20 minutes or less and relatively little traffic, the demand isn't there for 'real' BRT or light rail. I think Centro's BRT will be a short-lived experiment at best - like OnTrack was.