$1 gets you from ROC to downtown on RTS Route 8
RTS Bus Route 8 (Chili) is the rock-bottom-cost way out of Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport, with a base fare of about $1 and a scheduled 20–25 minute ride to downtown. It mainly serves Chili Avenue workers and hardcore budget flyers who don’t mind a short outside walk instead of a curbside pickup.
The catch: the official Route 8 stop isn’t at the terminal door; it’s out on Chili Avenue, a few minutes’ walk from the airport loop. Locals on r/Rochester literally call it “the Chili bus” and warn first-timers that there’s “no obvious bus stop” right outside ROC, which is why a lot of casual visitors default to Uber or Lyft instead.
On paper, airport to downtown is 20–25 minutes, but once you add the Chili Ave walk and typical wait time, real door-to-door can creep toward 40 minutes. Off-peak, Route 8 buses usually run about once an hour, so a missed trip in the evening can mean a 60-minute sit on the sidewalk or an unplanned $25+ rideshare instead.
Service is mainly daytime and early evening; locals say relying on Route 8 much after 9–10 pm is “asking to get stuck.” Workers along Chili Avenue often memorize the exact trips that match their shifts, then line up rides or rideshare if they’re stuck with a late-night landing that misses the last useful bus.
Step-by-step: catching RTS Route 8 from ROC
- 1. Check the schedule first. Before you leave baggage claim, pull up RTS Route 8 (Chili) for today and look for trips within a 30–60 minute window of your arrival time.
- 2. Exit the terminal toward the main loop. Follow signs to ground transportation, then keep walking out toward the airport access road that feeds to Chili Avenue; you’re heading away from the ticketing counters.
- 3. Walk out to Chili Ave. From the terminal area, plan on a short but fully exposed walk of several minutes to the marked RTS stop on Chili Avenue; there’s no dedicated ROC-branded stop at the front door.
- 4. Pay your $1 fare and ride inbound. When Route 8 arrives, board through the front door, have your $1 ready, and ride it inbound toward downtown; count on 20–25 minutes in motion if traffic is normal.
- 5. Transfer downtown if needed. At the downtown transit hub, you can switch from Route 8 to other RTS lines to reach neighborhoods beyond the central core; some locals use this instead of chaining multiple suburban buses.
Pro tip: If your flight lands after about 9 pm or you miss an hourly evening bus, don’t burn an hour on the curb; check the real-time tracker and be ready to bail to rideshare if the next Route 8 is too far out.