Mayor Walsh Urges Employers to Offer Centro Services to Employees

Published on September 06, 2023

Syracuse, N.Y. – Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh says the City’s commitment to provide Centro bus service as an employee benefit is a model other employers can follow. The Syracuse Common Council unanimously approved Walsh’s plan yesterday to make public transportation available at no cost to employees.

City workers will be able to ride Centro buses by showing their employee identification cards to bus drivers. Service will be available seven days a week on all Centro bus routes. Under the three-year agreement between the City and Centro, the City will reimburse the bus system for rides provided to city employees. The service goes into effect later this month.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for our employees to get to and from work and to get anyplace else they need to go. Centro is a convenient and reliable transportation option that we are proud to support,” said Mayor Walsh. “In a competitive hiring environment, free Centro service also makes the City an even more attractive place to work. Employees who choose Centro can avoid hundreds, even thousands of dollars in costs.”

“We hope this is the first of many such employers to offer this as an option for employees within our system” said Centro Chief Executive Officer Brian Schultz.  “Additionally, city employees will be among the first users of our mobile ticketing system that we expect to debut in coming months, further enhancing the user experience.”

Centro is the public transportation system serving Syracuse, Oswego, Utica, Rome and Auburn. It operates the Centro Transit Hub in Downtown Syracuse and the Regional Transportation Center, a one-stop transportation center for bus and train service, and ten Park-N-Ride locations. Centro recently launched new regular service from downtown to Syracuse Hancock Airport. More information about Centro service is at centro.org.