Clarkstown mini-trans a

Congers to nanuet mall

August 12, 2025

So, true to what I said in my COLTS 52 review, I rode another full route, and I'm doing a review! This time of Clarkstown Mini-Trans, which is a very interesting system. The town of Clarkstown is in central Rockland County, encompassing the subdivisions (which can be villages, hamlets, or CDPs) of Nanuet, New City, West Nyack, and more. If you're confused about the difference between a town and a village, welcome to New York State municipal boundaries. They're a doozy. Anyway, despite Clarkstown being served by Rockland County's bus system, TOR, Clarkstown Mini-Trans also exists, and is clearly meant to be a more local system, serving areas where TOR routes do not. In some ways, Clarkstown Mini-Trans shares a purpose with TOR's "Loop" routes, which are focused in the western part of the county. Owing to its lower ridership and somewhat smaller service area, Clarkstown Mini-Trans is an all-minibus system, which already tells you a lot about it. While TOR may be a mess in many ways, Clarkstown is less of a mess and more of a meme. So, without any further ado, let's go ride the A!

I spedwalked from a very late TOR 97 bus over to Lakewood Dr & Rt 9W, where the A starts. I was unsure of the exact routing of the loop up here, but it goes down Lakewood Dr first: as I was walking to Rt 9W, I saw it pass! I boarded, had a classic minibus interaction with the driver when asking for a transfer, and we soon left. We headed down Rt 9W for a short bit, then turned right onto Lake Rd. We crossed Rt 303, then passed through Congers' small downtown, also crossing the CSX River Line.

The bus on Lakewood Dr.

Congers' old train station.

We turned left on Kings Hwy, passing a park on the right and more suburban housing on the left. We soon left the hamlet of Congers and entered the hamlet of Valley Cottage. These are also both CDPs. Like I said, NYS municipal subdivisions are a mess. After crossing the CSX tracks again, we entered what could be charitably called Valley Cottage's "downtown", and turned left on Lake Rd.

Turning onto Kings Hwy.

Valley Cottage's extremely car-centric "downtown".

We crossed Rt 303, following a peak-only variant of the Rockland Coaches 9T bus, but quickly veered right onto Christian Herald Rd. We passed through increasingly rural areas before turning right onto Mountanview Av, which was a very narrow and hilly road. I can see why Mini-Trans uses minibuses! We passed the entrance to a very weird suburban condo development, crossed over the NYS Thruway, and ended up on Route 59, in Central Nyack (not to be confused with downtown Nyack!)

Some views from Mountanview Av.

I LOVE THE NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY SO MUCH!!!!! HIGHWAYS ARE AMAZING!!!!!!

(editor's note: this is a joke)

We turned right onto Route 59, which soon became a highway as we crossed over Route 303. The massive Palisades Center Mall appeared to our right, and we deviated in, serving the same stop as TOR, Hudson Link, and Rockland Coaches. We left through the surprisingly empty parking lot, and continued heading west on Route 59. The schedule says there is a stop at Routes 59 & 304, but both of those roads are highways at that point, so I'm not sure how a stop there would work! We soon turned left on College Av, right on 1st St, and then pulled into the terminus at the Nanuet Mall.

Malls, especially when surrounded by endless parking, are honestly quite dystopian.

The Nanuet Mal- oh sorry, this is apparently called the Nanuet Town Centre?!

The bus at the Nanuet Mall. Quick note: since Mini-Trans themselves do not say where the buses board at the mall, they board at the bus shelters in front of 24 Hour Fitness.

Route: Clarkstown Mini-Trans A (Congers to Nanuet Mall)

Ridership: 2,152 riders in April 2025, making it the most-used Mini-Trans route. For a larger system, this would be terrible — this is nearly identical to the (former) least-used MTA route (the QM3) — but for a system as small as Mini-Trans, this is not terrible. Only one other person was on my trip.

Pros: Despite using minibuses, this is massively more reliable than TOR is. It's also cheaper ($1.50 vs. $2), though TOR is currently free. This also provides a direct connection that no TOR route does, and provides direct service to other parts of Congers and Valley Cottage. It also could act as a last-mile connection to Rockland Coaches, if the connection times work out. Also, like many minibuses, there is a sense of community when riding this route. It isn't quite like a sitcom minibus, but there's clearly a camaraderie between drivers and regular passengers, which is always fun to witness.

Cons: The routing is a little indirect, though nothing is egregiously bad, and because of its windiness, it serves many unique places. While this is the most frequent Mini-Trans route, it is still only every 70 minutes, which is worse than TOR. Lastly, Mini-Trans really needs to tell people where the bus boards at the Nanuet Mall! I also think that Mini-Trans should offer connections to Pascack Valley Line trains at Nanuet Station, but the route D does already serve the station, so that's not a huge deal.

Nearby and Noteworthy: While it does serve unique places, these places are, for the most part, extremely boring. If you enjoy malls, it does serve two of them, but otherwise, Congers and Valley Cottage are not the most interesting of places. If you're willing to walk a bit, it does provide a connection to Rockland Lake State Park, and it's about a 4 mile walk (on roads and trails) to the Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry, which is very fun to ride.

Final Verdict: 8/10

This is a pretty good route, overall! While it may serve some more boring areas, it is definitely still an interesting ride from a transit nerd perspective, and a very useful connection to the people of Congers and Valley Cottage. That being said, I imagine most of the ridership of Mini-Trans is seniors who cannot drive: it would be hard, if not impossible, to live in much of Rockland County without a car.

Also, the minibus music™️ of choice, was, shocker: not music! It was rather just AM news radio!

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