Red Line in limbo: Will it extend to downtown Greenwood, Johnson County?

The future of a bus line that could make it easier for Johnson County residents to get to and from the city rests in the hands of Pleasant Township, but officials have shown little to no interest.

The initial projection for the final phases of Indianapolis Transportation Authority’s IndyGo Red Line rapid transit project had the bus line extending into downtown Greenwood, to Smith Valley Road and Madison Avenue. But for now, the line will end at Greenwood Park Mall, and any extension beyond that will have to be funded by Pleasant Township.

The Red Line will connect residents who live near the mall or choose to park at the mall’s park-and-ride to the rest of the city through rapid transit, Indianapolis’ first fully-electric, WiFi-equipped bus service, which will connect Greenwood residents to popular destinations in the Circle City, including University of Indianapolis, Fountain Square, downtown and Broad Ripple. The bus line, which is set to open Sept. 1, is expected to serve 11,000 riders daily, and will be free to customers the entire first month, according to IndyGo officials.

Half of the Red Line buses will run south of University of Indianapolis to Greenwood Park Mall. Service to Greenwood Park Mall will run from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays, 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays, with buses every 20 minutes during peak hours and every 30 minutes during off-hours, said Ryan Gallagher, IndyGo’s senior service planner.

Johnson County public officials, including Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers, along with central Indiana transportation officials, are encouraging the rest of Greenwood and Johnson County to use the service.

Transportation and city officials promoted the benefits of using the service during a recent public forum attended by the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority, Access Johnson County, Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Greater Greenwood Chamber of Commerce.

Johnson County has a relatively low cost of living in terms of rent and mortgage payments, but the county’s dependence on personal vehicles raises that cost considerably, said Sean Northup, assistant executive director of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization.

“Transportation costs are the single expense keeping people poor in the region,” Northup said. “We have one of the cheapest costs of living except for transit. You must have a vehicle to survive in Johnson County, and that’s $8,000 to $10,000 a year. It’s a trend that’s also learning toward transit alternatives as a great opportunity.”

Johnson County has seen a gradual decrease in public transportation service frequency and hours of operation.

The primary source of public transportation comes in the form of Access Johnson County, which relies on funding from the state and federal departments of transportation. When Access began services in 1995, it had 24-hour service between Stop 11 Road in Indianapolis and the Edinburgh Outlet Mall. Funding cuts caused the agency to cut Sunday service in 2012 and Saturday service in 2014, Access Johnson County Director Becky Allen said.

Over the years, the hours of operation went from 24 hours a day to ending at 10:30 p.m. In 2014, they were cut further, and now service runs from 6:15 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Allen said.

The Madison Avenue section of route 31 service, which runs from downtown Indianapolis to Greenwood’s Rural King on U.S. 31 on mornings, evenings and weekends, will cease to exist with the opening of the Red Line, meaning public transportation users will no longer be able to access downtown Greenwood on weekends come September.

The most likely way to replace that service loss and build on current bus service will be through funding in the form of an income tax referendum, most likely in Pleasant Township, the most heavily populated township in Johnson County that includes large parts of Greenwood, Whiteland and New Whiteland, Northup said.

“They could use that money to entirely support Access and bolster that. They could extend some version of the Red Line, they could provide far more in-demand service, more drivers, buses and routes, more fixed-route service and east-west connectivity,” Northup said.

As far as the Red Line goes, a Johnson County extension to Smith Valley Road, including the infrastructure that is needed for bus stations, improvements to sidewalks, curb ramps and roadways near the stations, as well as traffic signal upgrades, would cost about $11.6 million.

Townships, rather than towns and cities, are legally required to fund any extension of the Red Line or increased Access Johnson County Service, Mayor Mark Myers said.

If the township decided to move forward with the project but failed to pass an income tax hike, it would need to foot the bill itself, said Bill Hart, Pleasant Township Trustee.

“If that money is not made up by income tax, the township has to pay for it,” Hart said in December. “Our budget is not very high to begin with. I don’t know where we would get the money for that.”

Myers has not approached Hart about the possibility of adopting a public transportation referendum yet. Myers will launch a public information campaign and conduct town hall meetings about the same time he approaches the trustee, but doesn’t know when that will be, he said.

“What I see in the future is we have a group of people now, mostly younger residents, growing up that are depending less and less on their own private transportation and looking more towards public,” Myers said.

“I think that we are behind on public transportation and we need to get caught up for many things. It helps the environment, it helps the people who can’t get their drivers license and it helps people who want the possibility of jumping on the Red Line, with WiFi access. They can do work on their laptops on their way to work and it saves time and money on the expense of a vehicle.”

A Red Line extension would boost the local economy and make it so that students who live on the southside would have an easier time getting to Greenwood schools. About 20 percent of Greenwood schools’ more than 600 out-of-district students commute from Marion County, superintendent Kent DeKoninck said.

As more businesses moved into the more heavily trafficked areas along that extension, people would move in and spend their money in Greenwood, boosting the local economy, DeKoninck said.

“Anytime you have a strong business community, it will help the school district via the tax base. It may help by people eventually moving into the school district. From a macro perspective, if there’s mass transit, it’s allowing our businesses to thrive locally,” DeKoninck said.

“If we have that, it opens up corridors to people coming to the area or parents getting here to attend events.”

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IndyGo Red Line service will run from Greenwood Park Mall to the northside of Indianapolis starting on Sept. 1.

Monday through Friday;5 a.m. to 9 p.m., every 20 minutes, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., every 30 minutes

Saturday;6 a.m. to 1 a.m., every 30 minutes

Sunday;7 a.m. to 8 p.m., every 30 minutes, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., every 40 minutes

Source: Ryan Gallagher, senior service planner at IndyGo.

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