Public bus notebook: Bloomington could see fixed-route service outside city limits as soon as fall 2024

Bloomington city council members, from near to far: Matt Flaherty, Sydney Zulich, Dave Rollo, Andy Ruff, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, Hopi Stosberg, Isak Asare, Kate Rosenbarger, and Courtney Daily.

Bloomington Transit general manager, John Connell.

A route going outside the city limits was included in a set of recommendations by a BT consultant in 2019. The new route would not necessarily follow the same alignment shown here.

As soon as fall of this year (2024), Bloomington Transit (BT) hopes to offer a fixed-route bus that offers service to the area outside of the current city limits on the western edge of town.

That is one one big takeaway from BT general manager John Connell’s report to Bloomington’s city council on Wednesday.

The area that the route would serve includes big employers west of the current city boundaries like Cook Medical, Simtra BioPharma (Baxter), and Ivy Tech Community College.

Until last year, when the city council enacted an ordinance allowing it, BT could not operate anywhere outside the city boundaries.

Connell told city councilmembers that one of the challenges will be to identify a funding source for the new route. Continue reading “Public bus notebook: Bloomington could see fixed-route service outside city limits as soon as fall 2024” →

Transit notebook: Bloomington heads towards more cashless fares, year-end housekeeping

Bloomington Transit (BT) is looking to switch to a fare collection system where almost all passengers who pay to board the bus will do it with an electronic transaction.

At its meeting last Tuesday, the BT board authorized general manager John Connell to negotiate an agreement with Cubic Transportation Systems for the purchase of electronic fare collection system software.

The amount of the agreement with Cubic, which is headquartered in San Diego, is not supposed to be more than $1.5 million.

BT currently has an agreement with Token Transit, to provide one way of paying for rides with a smartphone. And Token Transit was one of the companies that responded to BT’s request for proposals, along with Masabi. But Cubic wound up as the preferred vendor. Continue reading “Transit notebook: Bloomington heads towards more cashless fares, year-end housekeeping” →

Ellettsville town council OKs 3 months of transit funding, future uncertain after that

From left: Ellettsville town councilors Scott Oldham and William Ellis (Dec. 11, 2023)

The blue shading indicates “urban area” as defined by the US Census and Federal Transit Administration. The current, pre-annexation city boundary for Bloomington is shown in black. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1irTiPkrnMPTnxXQcejdpvF0EMyR1jvo&usp=sharing

Rural Transit riders who use the transportation service to make on-demand trips inside Monroe County’s urban area will continue to be able to do that—at least through the end of March 2024.

But after March, it’s not clear who will pay the bill for Ellettsville-based trips.

Ellettsville’s town council voted on Monday to pay monthly invoices from Rural Transit based on actual rides given, starting in February, for rides taken the previous month.

But the vote reflects a commitment just for three months. After that, the council will reassess the town’s financial situation. Based on the town council’s deliberations on the topic, which lasted around 50 minutes, it’s not clear from which fund the money for the trips will be drawn.

But Ellettsville clerk treasurer Sandra Hash will take the steps to give public notice of the additional appropriation.

Based on historical data, Ellettsville’s cost for the whole year would work out to $132,000. Continue reading “Ellettsville town council OKs 3 months of transit funding, future uncertain after that” →