Dutchess County Public Transit Open Meeeting

Dutchess County Public Transit (DCPT) will continue to discuss and educate riders and the public about upcoming service improvements and changes at an information meeting to be held on Wednesday, February 28th starting at 5:30pm at the Beacon City Hall, located at 1 Municipal Plaza in the City of Beacon.

At the meeting, Transit staff will review the planned changes, specifically those to the southern parts of Dutchess County, including the new hourly service along routes A & B as well as additional service and stops along Route F at the new Amazon facility and iPark in East Fishkill, the Dutchess Community College (DCC) Fishkill Campus, and the Beacon Train Station.

View the route schedules that will go into effect on June 1, 2024 online at dutchessny.gov/PublicTransit.

DCPT will provide free rides for passengers attending the meeting, which can be reached via Routes B or G. Passengers should inform the bus driver of their destination upon boarding, including bus transfers.

An overview of the route modifications is as follows:

Routes A & B (Poughkeepsie to Fishkill/Poughkeepsie to Beacon): Trip frequency will increase to offer hourly service with eight additional trips on each of these two most traveled routes in the transit system.

Route C (Poughkeepsie to Tivoli): There will be an increase in the number of trips going to Tivoli, as well as timing improvements to avoid long mid-day gaps in service, giving riders more options to reach their destination. The route will also be streamlined to travel the same route every trip and eliminating under-utilized stops along Route 9G in Hyde Park, which averaged four or fewer riders per trip.

Route D (Poughkeepsie to Dover): This route’s eastern-most stop will now be the Village of Millbrook. Stops in Dover and Wassaic, which saw an average of three or fewer riders per trip, will be eliminated.

Route E (Poughkeepsie to Pawling): The eastern-most section of this route has been modified to service the Pawling area morning, mid-day and evening, which were found to be the busiest trips of the day, eliminating two under-used roundtrips. The rest of the route, which services the Lagrange area along Route 55, remains unchanged.

Route F (Beacon to Hopewell Junction): Service hours will be expanded to end at 10pm to better serve southern Dutchess County destinations such as the new Amazon facility and iPark in East Fishkill, the Dutchess Community College (DCC) Fishkill Campus, and the Beacon Train Station.

Route G (Beacon Free Loop): Following input from and in continued partnership with the City of Beacon, Route G, also known as The Beacon Free Loop, will become a Main Street Shuttle Monday through Saturday, and Sunday service from 10am to 5:50pm will be added, increasing trip frequency along the popular Main Street business corridor in the City. Routes B and F will continue to serve the surrounding City of Beacon area, including housing developments such as Forrestal Heights.

Routes H, J & K (DCC, and Poughkeepsie North and South sides): These routes will be eliminated as the changes to stops along Routes B, C, and D and the new Routes N and O replace them, ending overlapping service and creating less confusion for riders.

Route L (Poughkeepsie – Main Street Shuttle): Service will now end at 8pm as later trips along this route have seen three or fewer riders.

Routes M & P (Poughkeepsie East and West): These routes have been streamlined to better service students attending Poughkeepsie Middle and High School with trips coinciding with the schools’ start and end times. Evening and mid-day runs that were not being utilized will be eliminated.

NEW Route N: This new route will provide hourly service within the city and town of Poughkeepsie for DCC students as well as connecting residents of local housing developments along Smith Street, Delafield Street and surrounding areas, to local shopping such as the new Hudson Heritage shopping center on Route 9.

NEW Route O: Another new route will create direct, hourly service within the City of Poughkeepsie to and from Hudson Plaza and Poughkeepsie Plaza shopping centers, eliminating the doubling back and excessively long routes riders experienced on existing routes. This route will also provide hourly service to the nearby Poughkeepsie Middle and High schools outside of school start and end times, with connections to other routes.

RailLink Service (New Hamburg and Poughkeepsie Train Stations): Due to significant under-use (two or fewer riders per trip), service to New Hamburg train station will be discontinued. The Poughkeepsie RailLink will be discontinued due to low ridership as well as overlapping service on other routes.

To learn more about Dutchess County Public Transit, visit dutchessny.gov/publictransit. Riders can also call (845) 473-8424 for questions regarding the route modifications and alternate route options.