Tuesday, December 02, 2014

CIRTA Cancels Carmel Express Bus Service

CIRTA's Indy Express commuter bus service offering daily trips from Carmel to downtown Indianapolis is being terminated because the service was plagued by "low ridership" despite substantial subsidies offered to entice commuters to ride the bus. The CIRTA-sponsored bus service offered daily commuting aboard luxury Miller coach bus services equipped with WIFI for as little as $5 per one-way trip. Proponents of a metropolitan mass transit still believe a costly, expanded bus service stretching to the suburbs is necessary and want to move forward with the enactment of a new local income tax to fund it. Go figure.

11 comments:

MikeC said...

Indianapolis needs a first class bus system. I would increase funding for IndyGo to the point where all major routes downtown run no longer than 15 minutes apart and run past midnight.... say 1 or 2am at least on Friday and Saturday nights.

Start there. With income taxes at 1.65%, Marion county residents need to get something for the money that the burbs don't get. Transit for one.

Anonymous said...

$10 a day is a lot of money, and not having your car means you can't go out for lunch or to a restaurant with friends after work.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The income tax rate is going up 10% on January 1 supposedly for public safety, even though we all know that was just another bait-and-switch ploy perpetrated on us by the downtown mafia.

Anonymous said...

Mass Transit: Just another BIG GOVERNMENT subsidized industry that
can not survive on its own.

Look North to Car-mel for more examples of "can't survive without mega tax dollars."

c said...

When are people going to realize that this is NOT Chicago, New York, or some other densely packed city that must have mass transit.

Anonymous said...

Urban density is failed 19th Century thinking from back when we didn't have cars and had to rely on the horse and buggy.

Modern cities have lots of single-occupant cars and lots of roads with multiple lanes of travel.

Looking to buses is backwards thinking.

Anonymous said...

Focus on the west side and other city links to voting centers and health care.. Talk to Eskinazie about their health centers and the cuts made with bus routes there over the years...

John Accetturo said...

No demand, no need, no new taxes. The people of Carmel have spoken on Mass transit. There actions speak for themselves and no other person's opinion matters not even mine.

Rhonda Lee said...

"Modern cities have lots of single-occupant cars and lots of roads with multiple lanes of travel."

So we shouldn't strive to be one of the great cities of the world (New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Madrid, Berlin) and be content to be lumped in with the Grand Rapids and Des Moines of the US?

Rhonda Lee said...

"$10 a day is a lot of money, and not having your car means you can't go out for lunch or to a restaurant with friends after work."

Why do you need your car to go out for lunch if you work downtown?

Anonymous said...

While the idea of a bus system so huge I can sell my car sounds neat, it comes at a steep price. This city and its suburbs are too spread out to make such a system practical. People (myself included) will always use their cars when it's too damn cheap fast and easy to drive! Not to argue in favor of crony developers wanting to rebuild downtown Indy and Carmel with more density!