EDITORIAL: Transit victory hard fought but now real work begins

Originally posted to ibj.com on March 4, 2017.

After more than a decade of study and debate, the city of Indianapolis finally has more than just a plan to improve public transportation. It has funding, too, thanks to the City-County Council’s decision to join Marion County voters in supporting an income tax increase to pay for better service.

IndyGo is finally poised to become a functional bus system that can get people to jobs and other appointments with reasonable commute times seven days a week.

What will make it functional? Enough buses and drivers to reduce wait times to 10 to 15 minutes on the most popular routes, longer hours of service, and seven-day service on all routes. A $75 million federal grant that would fund the first of three bus rapid-transit lines that are part of the plan is in limbo. If it doesn’t come through, the plan will take longer to implement than the 2022 target, but most of the improvements will happen regardless.

For the full article, visit http://www.ibj.com/articles/62778-transit-victory-hard-fought?utm_source=this-week-in-ibj&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2017-03-04.