Make wishtv.com your home page

Bus service between Fishers, downtown Indy ends

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Bus service from Fishers to Indianapolis is about to hit the end of the road.

Friday, May 1 is the very last day riders can take advantage of it before the program is eliminated.

It all comes down to money. The Central Indiana Regional Transpiration Authority, or CIRTA, made the announcement in February that service would end Friday unless a funding source popped up. That hasn’t happened.

Ridership has been on the decline since June 2014. CIRTA blames a drastic decrease in departure times and increase in rider fares. At one point there were eight morning departures and eight afternoon departures and the cost was just $2. Most recently that has been trimmed to two in the morning and two departures in the afternoon and a $5 fare.

But CIRTA leaders say the nail in the coffin for the service was the city of Fishers pulling funding. The city was paying for the rental and maintenance of the Eastern Star Church parking lot for riders’ parking and then subsidizing expenses when ridership dipped below the break-even point. CIRTA leaders say public transit needs public support. They add even in the biggest cities like New York City and Chicago, public funding is needed to make ends meet.

Those interested in coordinating carpools should contact CIRTA’S Commuter Connect program. To get help making carpool arrangements contact Heather White at hwhite@cirta.us or 317-327-7433.

The one hope for Hamilton County residents interested in public transportation is the ‘Indy Connect Plan’ which is a transport initiative still in the planning phases. It would add buses and rapid transit lines throughout the Indy metro area, but the earliest we could see anything available to riders would be 2017.