Bailey Avenue bus riders look forward to faster commutes on rapid transit line

She catches two buses every morning to work, picking up the first one on Bailey Avenue and then transferring to another.

It’s not exactly a seamless ride, she said.

“(Sometimes) I might miss my next bus because traffic is so busy so I’m late to catch my next bus,” she said recently while waiting at a Bailey Avenue bus stop.

Johnson is among approximately 2,600 commuters who use a Bailey Avenue Metro Bus every weekday, according to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. It’s one of the NFTA’s busiest bus routes.

With a $102.7 million federal grant, the NFTA is planning to build a bus rapid transit line on a 7.5-mile stretch of Bailey from Main Street south to South Park Avenue. The new transit line will provide frequent, high-capacity bus services with dedicated bus lanes that can only be used by buses either all day or during certain times, typically peak traffic hours.

The NFTA has not finalized its bus rapid transit design plans, so exactly what changes will be made to Bailey Avenue are not known, but bus riders can expect a trip down Bailey to be faster, possibly by about 16 minutes. Some of the possibilities include a dedicated bus-only lane, fewer bus stops and a high-tech system that tells people waiting for buses when the next one will arrive.

The upgrades will help Bailey Avenue become friendlier for walkers and bikers while also improving traffic flow along the corridor, according to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, both New York Democrats. They announced the funding on Monday, but The Buffalo News broke the news on Sunday.

The federal funding will support the design and construction of the rapid transit line and safety improvements along the 7.5-mile path, which are expected to cost about $102 million. Schumer said the bus rapid transit project and related…