
IndyGo transit service for disabled falling short
IndyGo says the vendor it hired to operate its reservation-based transit service for disabled riders isn’t meeting expectations.
IndyGo says the vendor it hired to operate its reservation-based transit service for disabled riders isn’t meeting expectations.
Inez Evans started as IndyGo’s president and CEO just before the Red Line launched in September—a time of great promise but also complications.
IndyGo vendors are still working to deploy two key features that were supposed to be in place when the Red Line launched Sept. 1—and the delays are both disrupting Red Line operations and hurting IndyGo’s bottom line.
This is the second time IndyGo has extended the free period on the Red Line, which was originally set to begin collecting fares Oct. 1. IndyGo said its new ticketing system from vendor Flowbird isn’t yet ready for use.
The new payment system IndyGo has paid Paris-based tech firm Flowbird Group to design and implement will not be ready by Oct. 1, the day riders were to start paying for Red Line service.
The transit system is in the early stages of a plan to gather data on the employers and schools along its bus lines and develop specific pitches to persuade their employees or students to ride—and maybe cajole the employers to subsidize the cost.
The city’s first bus rapid-transit line is up and running, but public-transportation advocates are just getting started—and they’re hoping the next mayor of Indianapolis is on board.
IndyGo says riders took about 8,200 trips on the Red Line on Sunday, the first day the bus rapid transit line was in service.
IndyGo has big expectations for the bus rapid transit route—including a 69% increase in ridership along the north-south corridor by this time next year.
The first phase of IndyGo’s bus rapid transit project, the Red Line, remains on schedule for a Sept. 1 debut.
The transit system has hit some speed bumps as it works to implement a new model of electric bus that will be its fleet for the Red Line, the rapid-transit route that begins service Labor Day weekend.
IBJ reporter Susan Orr talks with host Mason King about how Indy’s weather is contributing to the problem, what IndyGo wants BYD to do about it and what other city got so fed up it sent its buses back to the company.
IndyGo says the electric buses it intends to use on the Red Line have been unable to run the 275 miles on a single charge that was promised by manufacturer BYD Ltd.
The challenge will solicit community ideas for tackling local mobility problems and award one or more finalists with $100,000 to implement pilot tests of their ideas.
The goal is to preserve or spur development of 1,000 affordable housing units within close distance of an Indianapolis transit stop over the next five years.
Speeding up construction is expected to shave four months off the 13-mile bus line project.
Michael Terry oversaw IndyGo at a critical time. In 2016, the agency successfully asked Marion County taxpayers for increased revenue in a tax referendum. The agency is now carrying out a plan to build three bus rapid-transit lines in Indianapolis.
IndyGo and bus maker BYD Ltd. say they’re confident the electric buses Indianapolis plans to use for the Red Line will meet the system’s needs.
The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, says it has discovered serious structural and safety problems with the same model of electric bus IndyGo plans to use for the Red Line.
IndyGo has already begun employee training and performance testing for the vehicles. One key question is whether the vehicles will achieve the expected range of 275 miles per charge.