Bloomington Transit’s first 60-foot articulated bus arrives at Grimes Lane depot

The shiny new bus parked in the Bloomington Transit depot on Grimes Lane would immediately capture attention: a sleek, aerodynamic windshield design, with cables and gauges poking into the vehicle for inspection. What makes it impossible to miss is the accordion-like link connecting the two halves of the 60-foot giant.

The bus arrived on Thursday, the first of three articulated buses acquired by BT from Canadian manufacturer New Flyer for a combined total of $3.5 million. The purchase was approved at a Bloomington Transit board meeting a year ago on May 20, 2025.

An articulated bus is a single-decker bus made of two rigid sections joined together by a pivot. This pivot often looks like an accordion, and it allows the two sections of the bus to maneuver roads while offering higher capacity than regular length buses.

According to the New Flyer website, these 60-foot buses can seat up to 61 passengers, with standing room for another 62. BT plans on using this extra capacity primarily for its high usage routes serving Indiana University locations, but will maintain flexibility in its deployment.

Shelley Strimaitis, BT’s planning and special projects manager at BT, told The B Square the buses are most likely to serve Routes #6 and Route #12, because those have the most ridership in the system. She added that the buses will also be available for any other routes that get full.

“During the [Indiana University] semesters we have six buses out on Route 6 and one on Route 12. We have three articulated buses, we'll just stick them on whichever bus times seem to be the fullest and need them the most,” she said.

These will be the first articulated buses on the BT fleet to go into full service, but Strimaitis does not expect the training phase for drivers to be too challenging.

“We'll train [the drivers]. There’s not like a special license or anything for it, but we do have our internal training to make sure you're cleared on it. It has the turning radius of a 35-foot bus, whereas most of our electric buses are 40 foot buses. So it’s actually, in some aspects, a little bit easier to drive,” she said.

Bloomingtonians can expect to see all three buses on the road right as fall semester begins at Indiana University. According to Strimaitis, the remaining two buses are likely to arrive by the end of the month.

“We don't need them during the summers, but we'll probably put them into service, maybe late July, August, so drivers can get used to having them. And then they'll go out more regularly, starting in the fall semester,” she said.