ALBANY — The Capital District Transportation Authority served 16.5 million customers in 2019, CEO Carm Basile said during the authority's "State of the CDTA" event Thursday morning.

It also consumed more than 2.2 million gallons of diesel fuel — a figure Basile anticipated will be lowered once the CDTA expands its fleet of four electric buses.

The CDTA has nearly 300 buses in its fleet, employs about 700 people, and the number of people using the service, Basile said, is constantly rising.

"It is growing every single day," Basile said in front of the audience of CDTA leaders and business partners. "Every day ridership is higher than it was the day before."

But one problem the transit agency is facing: finding potential employees to recruit in a time of low unemployment levels.

"Fellows like me are dying breeds," Basile said. "People don't stay at one place for a lot of years, but if you stay at one place, you're treated well, you're given every opportunity, you're pushed beyond your limits ... there's always something more you can achieve.

The transit authority currently has four electric buses which cost $1 million each, Basile said. But the buses are limited in their routes because they need to stay close to the CDTA station to charge. Basile said 41,000 trips were taken last year on bike-share bicycles owned by the transit group.

Basile said the transit authority is in the middle of a strategic planning process, and announcements about an upcoming Blue Line bus rapid transit service for state employees, and electric buses, are still to come.