More than 150,000 rides have been taken on the CTfastrak Bus Rapid Transit system in the five weeks since operations began on March 28, Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced this week. Ridership has grown to more than 7,000 riders per day on the bus-only roadway. This is in addition to the 7,000 daily riders that use existing CTtransit bus routes in the corridor.

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“We’re working to transform Connecticut’s transportation system to boost jobs, improve our economy, and enhance quality of life to build a brighter tomorrow. The early indicators of success of CTfastrak indicate that Connecticut residents are clamoring for a best-in-class transportation system now and in the long-term. People are embracing new ways to travel, and a renewed focus on improving our transportation system is good for businesses and residents. CTfastrak demonstrates just that,” Governor Malloy said. “This is a tremendous system with tremendous potential, and I hope to see continued success going forward as we work to transform our infrastructure across the state.”

“Our models had projected a minimum of 11,200 daily rides in the corridor in the first year of service, so to see that we’re already averaging about 14,000 a day is gratifying,” Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner James P. Redeker said. “We’ve had significant growth in the ridership levels almost every week and seeing new riders onboard every day. We have also experienced good growth in our CTfastrak express routes, which went from about 9,000 rides in March to more than 13,000 rides in April.”

The CTfastrak transit system provides direct service to and from Waterbury, Cheshire, Southington, Bristol, Plainville, New Britain, Newington, West Hartford, Hartford, East Hartford and Manchester with routes that take advantage of the bus-only CTfastrak roadway. The CTfastrak system offers a one-seat, no-transfer ride to many major regional employment, shopping and healthcare destinations as well as connections to the New Haven Line-Waterbury branch rail in Waterbury and Amtrak service in Hartford. A new 4.5-mile multi-use trail was built paralleling the CTfastrak bus-only roadway from New Britain to Newington Junction.