Greene County Transit is a bus system in Greene County, New York. The system offers fixed bus routes throughout the county, plus a route connecting to Hudson in Columbia County and countywide dial-a-ride service. The system is managed, owned, and operated by the ARC of Ulster-Greene, with oversight by the Greene County Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Planning.[5][6][7] The majority of the system's funding is from the Federal Transit Administration, but Greene County and New York State also contribute funding.[7][4]
The first bus service in Greene County began in 1915, when Mountain View Coach Lines began service from Coxsackie to Albany.[8] This service lasted throughout the 1920s, and in 1927, bus service started between Catskill and New York City. County-operated bus service began sometime in the 1990s, and was operated by First Student and branded as the Rip Van Winkle Express until 2015.[9][10][a] The system operated once-per-week routes serving various areas of the county, in addition a shuttle in the village of Catskill, all with extremely low ridership.[9][11] In July of 2015, the Greene County Legislature announced that the Rip Van Winkle Express would be merged with the ARC of Ulster-Greene (a non-profit agency for children with disabilities), and using their combined resources, the bus system would transform.[6] In June of 2016, this service was launched, with five routes fanning out across Greene County.[2]
Operates 11 runs per day, connecting Greene and Columbia Counties
705 Green Line Dial-a-Ride
Countywide Dial-A-Ride service
Ridership
Total system ridership was 2,325 riders per year in 2009, before the takeover by the ARC of Ulster-Greene.[9][11][15] After the system's reintroduction under the ARC, ridership jumped to 11,453 in 2017, and 15,989 in 2023.[16][4] Despite this increase, the system's ridership remains significantly lower than other nearby systems—it is approximately half of Columbia County's yearly transit ridership.[11][17]
In 2023, the system had a farebox recovery ratio of 3.6%.[4]
Fleet
The fleet is consists of 10 buses, all of which are minibuses, mostly (if not entirely) from the Ford E-450 family.[7][4]
1 2 Media, Ryan Anglim Columbia-Greene (July 7, 2015). "County moves on public transit". The Daily Gazette Family of Newspapers. Retrieved February 14, 2025.
↑ Media, Katie Kocijanski Columbia-Greene (May 10, 2016). "County bus system ready to roll". The Daily Gazette Family of Newspapers. Retrieved February 14, 2025.
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