CDTA Navigator

The 2023 update enables customers to pay their fares and look up bus arrival times. The main problem is that the app’s GPS doesn’t work correctly. If you open the app to check arrival times for bus stops near you, the app will place your location several bus stops away. If you’re close to the end of a route, the app won’t list the last few stops and there’s no option to view all stops on a route. This is very problematic for buses that don’t often, such as the 737, which runs once every 2 hours. If you miss this bus, then you’ll be stranded for hours. Unfortunately, CDTA’s website isn’t reliable, as it incorrectly lists certain routes as inactive for the day. Until CDTA fixes the app and makes its website more reliable, make sure you also have Google maps installed to check arrival times.

For some reason the app card reads one thing but when I’m inside the bus it doesn’t I’m a swipe card monthly my card has money till the 22 of May but got some reason when i used it on the bus first ride it works but on the second ride it’s saying that the card it’s not good but it has the $65 dollars till next month

Updates have helped, however twice this week the pay as you go malfunctions. This is very frustrating.

The recent update adds a lot of useful functionality and is much more intuitive. Thank you for putting the effort in!

I don’t understand how you have a app that never works to put money on it for the bus pass. When you call the boffice for the navigator department it’s only open 9-5 Monday thru Friday. People have to load there passes all weekend too. So you have no help with the issue and they know its an issue. They give you a discount when you use the app for your bus pass but you can’t put money on the app . Make it make sense

The new UI overhaul is just awesome. It tells you the things that actually matter, the next busses and live location etc. I think they forgot to update the screenshots in the AppStore!! Lol

I Live in Guilderland and have to take 4 buses a day. 2 to work and 2 home. Every morning the 763 bus going to Crossgates is 10 or more minutes late and I miss my connecting bus. So I decided to order a Flex bus. Nowhere on the app does it say that it only goes to certain stops. The app makes it sound like they pick up all over Guilderland. Not true. They got rid of my stop when they revamped Flex.

I always use this app instead of carrying around change. I never had any problems with the app.

This app won't even let me add a payment method; I've put the same one in twice with all the information correct each time, and it says "Payment failed; invalid expiry date or CVC"...and I wasn't even trying to make a payment – just adding a payment card. I guess this app is as terrible and useless as everybody else says it is. What a shame.

Crashes when trying to access my passes

At long last an update worth using the app for.

Imagine a transit app lacking the functionality to locate the nearest stop? Imagine a transit app lacking the functionality to show you a map with its lines/stops layered over it so that you can at least try to find the nearest stop yourself? Well stop imagining. YOU FOUND IT! Actually, what DOES this app do?

The original worked perfectly, but the version updated in September 2023 is so buggy that it’s virtually useless. Today’s date is wrong, favorites default to the wrong version of the route, and so on. Use the paper schedule instead.

Been late to work every time because drivers are given a set queue list, if they are near a passenger they can’t pick them up ahead of someone like they used to be able to which needs to change.

New update and design looks great and was working way better then before but today for some reason its not showing any bus routes, only showing bike and Lyft, if I wanted a Lyft I would open up the Lyft app not CDTA. Now I got to wait at the bus stop most likely 25 minutes thanks to non functioning cdta app. Please fix!!

There needs to be a place on the profile to bring in Navigator card info. With special needs and fare status.

Usually on the weekends this app will give inaccurate information about buses and bus service.

Dont bother to use this app especially if u only doing two ride every other day it will refresh always back to 3 rides and youll never get your free ride end up spending more money then you should have.

I tried several times to buy the monthly bus pass, but every time I verify the payment it just won’t continue on to the next page.

This app used to work perfectly and the trip planner part was great but for about 3 weeks now trip planner is completely screwed up. You can't put in the stops (at least for route 13) and get the times because it tells you no routes available and that you're coming from Washington, D.C. And it will take you 18 hours. It tells you this when you pick the stops as your destination and departures from cdta options. No point in using the app when the trip planner doesn't work to give accurate results

the new app update is great! it now shows bike routes, lyft and uber availabilities, and bike rentals spots. the bus routes show the stops better and hopefully will be more accurate with arrival times too (havent tested yet)

Tried to make payments and it keeps telling me to try again. Never had this issue before.

When trying to create a route from Camillus to Destiny USA doesn’t work, but Google Maps and Apple Maps does. Why? I’d rather take Uber not because of this.

The new app is clunkier than the old. Time and date don’t sync with my phone. Always reads 12:00am.

For the past two weeks to CDTA‘s app and bus schedule has been off by as much as an hour. They need to correct us ASAP as I am a disabled resident.

The new update takes very long to activate passes and scans into the bus each time. 👎🏻

As of today, the app doesn’t let you finish a purchase without their server timing out.

The app works but I’ve never seen a on time cdta bus for the 6years I’ve been riding heat,rain,snow dus not not matter I bus is always late or the time is getting pushed back

Excellent source of information for bus riders

When I click on a bus stop, it only shows 905 or 355. It doesn’t show all the buses.

This app freezes as soon as you get on the bus. They need better developers.

the app does not function correctly it wont let me add money right now and its taken extra money from me in the pass

Simply not working to plan a trip

Overall, this is a reasonably good public transportation app. A few tests show that the arrival times are pretty accurate. I do wish we could search bus stops geographically (stops near me or stops near my destination) instead of either having to know the correct name or scroll through the ENTIRE list of stops covering three cities. That said, I checked a bus time today (after last doing so a week ago) and I can't get any results for any search criteria rendering the app completely non-functional. A look at other reviews tells me this problem has occurred for other users at least for the last year. This could be quite serious if I were in an area I was unfamiliar with depending on this app to get back home. UPDATE: This app has gotten increasingly worse with each update. It crashes 3 - 4 times per use, it often inaccurately claims no bus stops or buses are nearby, and the maps are barely usable on a mobile platform. (Full-sized PDFs are for computers not mobile devices.)

From the times of wasting paper that CDTA uses for bus schedules, this is by far the most useful app for a bus traveler. I am able to plan out my day accordingly, whether it be taking my daughter to daycare, looking for a job, or make an easy trip to the shopping center. You do not have to have wifi to get your trip planned, which makes it easy. It also gives you other options with quicker routes so you don't have to wait between rides. Recommendation to people who have freezing app, update your firmware or close down your multitasked apps. Works just fine for me, 3rd Generation iPod touch.

My husband had to start going back to the office after 11 years working from home and starting taking the bus. The first day the bus driver told him he hates when riders try to use the app. That says everything! Three areas need improvement: 1) The payment app. It’s not easy to figure out that you can’t get a barcode until you are ready to ride and even then you have to be careful. Too soon it could expire, too late and you are holding up the bus. 2) Real time bus tracking doesn’t work. He got to the bus stop at the time it was supposed to arrive and the app updated to show a bus 11 minutes away. Then one showed up 4 minutes later. 3) Trip planning. The previous version the address search found addresses all over the world (areas you don’t serve CDTA). That was bad but now you can only find stop names...no addresses are found. If you find a stop name by typing a street, it doesn’t tell you what city the stop is in. Don’t you realize that there are State Streets, Broadway and Main are pretty much in every city you serve? Very disappointed with this app. Please try harder this is needed and you can do better.

I've used this app for a few weeks with great results. Accurate information and no crashes or bugs. Then tonight it gave me false info saying a bus stopped at a stop that it doesn't. This left me stranded in a bad neighborhood at night until I found someone who informed me the actual stop was five blocks away. Five blocks later when I got to the bus I was not very pleased

It seems every time this app gets updated, the barcodes stop working. Now the barcode shows up too small and the app says to click the barcode to enlarge, and it enlarges ever so slightly, and still does not scan. The app was finally back to scanning correctly and now my money is being wasted yet again. Bus drives also don’t realize that if you’re scanning your phone, you’ve essentially already paid so they should be aware that they should let you on if the machines are not scanning.

I have been using this app for the past 6+ months and was working fine. Until the recent update. It's not showing departing times for different busses going to your final destination. In others it's just saying "NO TRIPS FOUND". Please fix ASAP as a lot of us use it as to when to start walking and not be waiting around for hours :-(

I found this app and decided to try it...it gave me the right buses to take, but it says a trip from downtown Albany to downtown Schenectady, then transferring to another bus to Van Vranken Ave would take a total of 20 minutes. It takes about an hour to take the 55 from Albany to Schenectady. I've always used the Map app that comes native on the iPhone, and it works much better. This app doesn't let you put in a destination that isn't a bus stop address. The only benefit on this app is the advisory section that would tell you if buses were re-routed or cancelled, but I would call anyway to ask about that. Unless they update it to be able to choose contacts or businesses as destinations, this app is useless to me. I'll continue using the native iPhone Map application.

Almost had to kick the bus driver in the teeth because he gave me a hard time for this crappy app that doesn’t work. Once they update their app the barcodes don’t work. I literally paid 65 dollars for some moron to tell me to get a phone that works or settle the issue with the company or he’s not letting me back on next time even when the dude sees me on my commute every day and I have clear proof that the pass is still valid. I wish I could give this no stars. You people are thieves.

The redesign for the app is nice, and finally there's support for iPhone 5. My only problem is that I can't save my favorite trips anymore. This is definitely a problem if I can't access the internet. Please bring back this feature!

Read the reviews but just tried it out recently during a visit and thought the application was pretty easy to use and much better than expected.

I've changed my review from 1 star to 4 because the app has been much more reliable. I am starting to trust it, as it has been giving correct information for the last couple of months. I hope it keeps up, if so I will rate it 5 in the future

Very useful! Navigating some of the features is not as intuitive as I would like- couldn't there be someway to tap a location along a route to signify your destination? Also, live data would be awesome.

Not sure what happened as I used this app quite frequently over the summer to plan trips and see arrival times and it worked fine, but trip planner suddenly isn’t working at all. App hasn’t been updated in nine months so that could be the problem especially with a new ios running on my phone.

so I had this app for several months it was working just fine, but recently I updated my iphone and the app constantly tells me that there aren't any directions for this trip it's ridiculous they really need to fix the bugs on this app this is very frustrating

Beautifully designed app, gives you all the routes at the palm of your hand. The one thing it lacks is a favorite destination selection.

The app doesn’t warn you that the credit you purchased for a ticket will expire in a few minutes. Not before or after. Filed a credit dispute even if it was $5 bc of terrible customer service and them not taking responsibility for this garbage app.

This is a great app for a SUNY student, or a commuter new to the area. The only thing that would make it better is real-time location.