The reduction in the supplies budget for 2021 can be attributed in part to a drop in diesel fuel prices from $2.43 to $1.60 a gallon.

Ridership was a smidgen higher in 2019 compared to 2018, the first time ridership has been up since 2014.

Ridership is currently around 40 percent of normal levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Wednesday night, Bloomington Transit general manager Lew May presented his 22nd annual budget to Bloomington’s city council.

It was a part of the four-day series of 2021 budget presentations heard by the council this week. The council won’t see a final version of the budget until late September and won’t take a vote on it until October.

A highlight of BT’s 2021 budget is the way it maintains a course set in 2020, for the acquisition of electric buses. Three more are budgeted for next year. They show up in the capital expenditure breakdown of the $14.5 million total budget.

The planned 2021 capital expenditures are $5.2 million, which is about 8 percent more than last year’s $4.8 million. Compared to 2019, the 2020 capital expense figure was nearly double. Continue reading “Bloomington’s public transit looks to COVID-19 recovery in 2021” →