Groups that perennially press the Indiana Department of Transportation to broaden its vision of mobility beyond highways now accuse the agency of “significant ineptitude or willful disregard” in eliciting public input.
IndyGo will accept new applications for funding beginning Feb. 14.
Routes to Carmel and Fishers that were to be discontinued at the end of the year are on the verge of being rescued.
Scaled-back transit plan, which includes rail line from downtown to Noblesville and Franklin, is projected to cost $2.4 billion, with local taxpayers picking up about half the amount. Funding would need to be approved through county referendums, however.
The luxury coach routes from downtown to Fishers and Carmel were launched three years ago and have been popular among suburban commuters.
Transportation planners are scrambling to find federal funds to help pay for the popular commuter routes from downtown
Indianapolis to Fishers and Carmel.
The bus system’s announcement in May that its current service and fare structure will remain intact through 2011 helped to
extend the life of the route.
Connecting rural bus systems with one another and with IndyGo must happen before commuter rail becomes a reality.
Carmel’s virtual Disney World of new, high-density attractions—from the mixed-use City Center to the Carmel Arts and Design
District—were built with walking and biking access in mind. A recently completed study shows the potential to link numerous
other city destinations by multiple forms of transportation.
Faced with a $3.2 million budget shortfall, IndyGo proposes the elimination of the Airport Express route, the Route 87 Eastside
Circulator and the IndyGo Commuter Express to Carmel and Fishers.
The partnership called Hoosier Ride is helped by a $2 million federal grant and will operate at least one trip daily in each
direction using Miller charters along four routes running between Indianapolis and Evansville, Muncie, Seymour and Kalamazoo,
Mich.
With traffic congestion growing, the idea of sending streetcars zipping down Washington Street—from
far-east-side Cumberland to Indianapolis International Airport on the west—is making a return. And
the route could offer the best bang for the buck in spurring transit-oriented development.
The expanded service shuttling air travelers and airport workers to and from Indianapolis International Airport began Feb.
3, to the newly opened Fairfield Inn & Suites at West and Washington streets.
Backers of the plan
said the work by the Central Indiana Transit Task Force amounts to a crucial private-sector endorsement
needed to finally proceed with a regional transportation system.
After 30 years of government
studies of a regional transportation system, a private-sector group on Wednesday is set to unveil its own
plan that includes commuter rail and toll lanes added to congested interstate highways.
The decision to sidetrack a 110-mph Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati train hasn’t received any attention
locally. High-speed rail could someday become an economic development engine here, but it has
not gained as much attention here as improved highways or a commuter rail line from downtown to Noblesville.
IndyGo, for all its faults, is the Cadillac of transit systems in the Indianapolis region. Service breaks at county lines
and the absence of passenger shelters are among the deficiencies facing transit systems in surrounding counties.
The Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority, IndyGo and other Indianapolis-area transit groups are the subject of
a study that could result in them being reorganized.
Due to low ridership, the IndyGo Commuter Express route from Greenwood to downtown Indianapolis will end Dec. 1.
An urban advocacy group is trying to bring a big-city concept to Indianapolis: car sharing. People for Urban
Progress cites environmental benefits as well as cost savings for urban dwellers who might find it practical to ditch their
seldom-used vehicles.
