Public Bus Notebook: Bloomington Transit ridership still trending up post-pandemic, but far below pre-2020 levels
Fixed-route ridership numbers for Bloomington Transit (BT) buses in 2024 finished the year up 4% from the year before—about 2.52 million rides in 2024 compared to 2.42 million in 2023.
The increased numbers this past year continue the upward trend since the COVID-19 pandemic. But they leave the public transit agency's fixed route numbers around 20% lower than for 2019, which was the last full year before the virus struck.
In 2019, BT showed a year-over-year increase for annual fixed-route ridership for the first time after a four-year slide from a peak of around 3.51 million in 2014. And in 2020, the first two months of the year pointed to another year of increased numbers, before the pandemic hit in mid-March.
Part of the 20% lower ridership in 2024 compared to 2019 could be accounted for by the fact that BT ran about 8% less service hours in 2024 (87,760 hours) compared to 2019 (95,287 hours).
The 4% increase from 2023 to 2024 came on the strength of ridership in the first four months of the year. From January through April last year, the 1,037,403 trips for those four months meant about 16% more trips than the 892,680 that were taken in 2023. But in the final five months of 2024, ridership was actually down by about 4%—from 1,258,240 to 1,207,216.
The downward trend has continued in each of the first two months of 2025. Compared to January and February of 2024, the total this year is down about 15%—from 541,833 to 469,641 rides.
That's despite the addition of the new Route 13 starting in 2025, which serves the west side of Bloomington, including Ivy Tech and Cook Medial, which are outside the city limits. That was made possible by a change in local law, which previously confined BT's services area inside Bloomington city limits.
In January, Route 13 ridership was 664 followed by 1,050 rides in February.
Shelley Strimaitis, who is BT's planning and special projects manager told the BT board at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, that the March numbers are also trending upward for Route 13. But she noted that Route 13 is right now BT's lowest ridership route.
The 4.5 passengers per revenue hour for February make Route 13 half as productive as the next lowest route, which was Route 4 West, at 8.53 passengers per hour. On the high end, in February, BT's Route 6 Limited showed about 70 passengers per hour.
Strimaitis responded to board questions about Route 13 ridership levels so far by saying that BT is looking at ways to improve the usability of the route, and to partner with Ivy Tech to publicize it to students. But she indicated BT wants to give the route some time to develop its ridership.
BT general manager John Connell indicated that even though there's not a contractual obligation to report Route 13 ridership numbers to Monroe County government, which is helping to fund the service, BT will be relaying the figures to county officials as a courtesy.
