MOFD

My freshman daughter was told that shuttles ran to Syracuse and Albany airports for Thanksgiving, so I bought plane tickets for her, with her flights using the Albany airport.

Now she tells me there is no shuttle to Albany. She has posted on the (virtual) ride board, with no response.

What options are there for traveling to and from Albany?

jrpar

A few ideas - call one of the local taxi services to see if groups of students are sharing taxis to Albany that day (I think students often do this to Utica). Call the travel desk at Colgate (Colgate Student Travel Agency ( 228-6847 ). There is bus service to Albany -http://www.coachusa.com/shortline/. There is train service from Utica to Albany.

sunnyflorida

Odd. I know for a fact (neice) that there was service from Hamilton to Alabany for spring break 2007. While you seek alternatives, you might call and ask why they dropped Albany, given that they were servicing that route and there are likely more students than just your D who need a ride. It was $30 a student for last spring. Who knows. They may help facilitate a ride.

https://www.hamilton.edu/college/dea...pringBreak.PDF

bluebayou

ooooh, as a prospective parent the west coast, the lack of shuttle is disconcerting, particularly since they told us too, on the tour, that there were plenty of shuttles running from Colgate to Albany airport during school breaks.

coachusa goes to Albany from Clinton NY (Hamilton College), but not Hamilton, NY......

MOFD: please report back what you find out. tx

MOFD

Just spoke to a pleasant young man at the Colgate Travel Agency, who confirmed that there is no shuttle to Albany from Colgate. The Shortline bus goes to Utica, and from there a Greyhound bus will take you to Albany - but the two trips are scheduled too late in the afternoon for my daughter to make her flight.

jrpar

Very surprising. I know more students fly in/out Syracuse but I would have thought plenty used Albany. Maybe contact the admissions office and see if they have any ideas? They probably field this question for prospective students coming to visit so they might have an idea.

lydia08

I fly through Syracuse (which is closer) and there's always Colgate shuttles running there, as well as discounted taxis. They do cancel the shuttles if there's no demand - there may have been several breaks for which no one or very few people used the shuttle to Albany, so it wasn't cost effective to keep running them. I actually hadn't even heard of one to the Albany airport, and I don't know anyone who has flown through there - Syracuse seems much more common.

MOFD

Yes, we've done Syracuse a couple times this year - and apparently will have to continue using it in the future. But the cheapest USAir flights between Syracuse and BWI (Baltimore-Washington) have a stopover at LaGuardia. Southwest flies direct from Albany to BWI - it's both faster and cheaper than any of the alternatives from Syracuse.

SJTH

My son is a west coast freshman, and flies out of Syracuse. There is a local taxi service, called Hamilton Taxi, that takes kids back and forth to the airport for about $90. I called them, and they couldn't be nicer. They run shuttles to Albany for $160.00. Web address is www.hamiltontaxi.net.

By the way, Colgate was of NO help figuring this out, which is the first time I have had a negative experience with Colgate communicaitons.

austinincollege

I am a student at colgate that runs a "shuttle" service to make some extra cash... I go to syracuse and utica regularly but can make special arrangments for other places binghamton, albany, rochester etc....the cost for syracuse or utica is $80 ROUNDTRIP per person or $45 one way...i offer discounts if there are groups....

austin
aschwartz@mail.colgate.edu
813-850-8991

I will be staying a day late and coming back a day early for winter break so that I can be here to give rides.