Ulster County to Shift UCAT Transfer Hub to Development Court; Sept. 15 Service Changes Aim to Boost Reliability

Chair Jeff Collins said the committee would discuss changes to Ulster County Area Transit (UCAT) routes that the county plans to implement on Monday, Sept. 15. Amanda Laval, Deputy Executive, told the legislature the changes are driven by a request from the Kingston Plaza owner that the county stop using the plaza for bus transfers and by system reliability concerns. “The owner of the Kingston Plaza has requested that the County no longer use the plaza for our bus transfers,” Laval said. She told legislators the county was notified of that request on July 30 and issued public notice of the new schedule on Aug. 15.

The change relocates the main transfer point to Development Court, a county-owned site on Ulster Avenue, and includes multiple route adjustments across Kingston, New Paltz, Newburgh and Ellenville. Laval said the shifts will increase paratransit capacity—allowing up to five paratransit vehicles daily—and improve scheduling flexibility. Tony Rozier, Director of UCAT, described operational changes to staffing and run-times and said the schedule redesign also shortens some rural turnarounds. “Daily, we we allow 3 drivers off per day,” Rozier said; he and Laval explained that the new alignments and reconfigured workday lengths (moving some work to eight-hour shifts rather than 10) will reduce cancellations…