WASHINGTON – A bus rapid transit line will be built along Bailey Avenue in Buffalo from Main Street in the north to South Park Avenue in the south thanks to a $102.7 million federal grant to be announced Monday.
The 7.5-mile route will feature dedicated bus lanes, an estimated 13 stations with waiting areas, improved signaling and safety features for bicyclists and pedestrians. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, both New York Democrats, will announce the plan Monday, but The Buffalo News obtained an advance copy of the announcement on Sunday.
“Bailey Avenue is the spine of the East Side and one of Buffalo’s busiest corridors, but ask anyone who has been stuck behind an NFTA bus while trying to get to work, it can also be one of its most frustrating for traffic and dangerous, with dozens of collisions every year,” Schumer said. “This $100 million to create the new Bailey Avenue bus rapid transit line is how we can turn congestion and collisions into a smoother commute for Buffalonians.”
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Gillibrand said Buffalo residents can expect big changes thanks to the project.
“Soon, it will help thousands of East Buffalo residents get where they need to go quickly, cheaply and safely, and make Buffalo more equitable and more livable,” she said.
Bailey Avenue has long been regarded as one of the city’s main, and most vexing, north-south corridors. The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority says that about 2,600 commuters use the Bailey Avenue Metro Bus every weekday.
However, buses currently compete for road space on a broad urban thoroughfare often jammed with other vehicle traffic. And as a result, an NFTA study found that there have been 2,500 collisions along Bailey in the past five years.
The bus rapid transit project and related improvements should make the route safer for all sorts of commuters, Schumer said.
“From the students on UB’s South Campus to the veterans who use this bus route to travel to the VA on Bailey Avenue, this funding will cut down on commutes and make connections more seamless to improve quality of life for Buffalonians,” he said.
State transportation planners and public figures such as longtime Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat who recently resigned from Congress, have long been advocates of changes that could improve the traffic flow along Bailey Avenue.
State Sen. Tim Kennedy, who chairs the Transportation Committee, last year secured funds in the state budget for the bus project’s design.
“This massive infusion of federal dollars will transform one of Buffalo’s most congested and hazardous streets, helping to create a better Bailey Avenue for all who use it,” Kennedy said.
The federal funding for the Bailey Avenue project will come from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Access and Equity Program, which was funded under the clean energy and health care legislation that the then-Democratic Congress dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act. Passed in 2022, the bill Þ at Schumer’s behest – includes the Neighborhood Access and Equity Program, which aims to fund projects that try to boost transportation safety and access in economically disadvantaged or underserved communities.
More than $3 billion in federal funds will be allocated under the program. A major reconstruction of Interstate 81 in Syracuse will be funded under the program as well, Schumer’s office said.
“I created this program because reconnecting communities with affordable transportation; making long overdue safety and infrastructure upgrades that for years have been beleaguered in Buffalo is how you lay the foundation for a better future,” Schumer said.
Schumer's office said the NFTA expects preliminary design and environmental reviews for the project completed in 2026, with construction to follow.
Gillibrand also pushed for the creation of the program, which is similar to the Reconnecting Communities Program created under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. That measure will bring $55 million to the city for the reconstruction of the Kensington Expressway.
Regarding the bus project, Gillibrand said: “This is a long overdue investment in Buffalo’s East Side, and I’m proud to have advocated hard to deliver it."