ANDERSON — Beginning on July 1, there will be a change in the service area covered by the Transportation for Rural Madison County.
TRAM has been operating in Madison County since 1985 and provides low cost transportation to residents outside the city of Anderson.
Jerry Bridges, executive director of the Madison County Council of Governments, said Thursday said the new federally designated urbanized area will eliminate the service to Pendleton, Ingalls and Chesterfield.
He said the former urbanized area extended north to Alexandria as determined in 2000.
“About four years ago, the Federal Transportation Administration started looking at urbanized areas,” he said.
Bridges said the federal dollars are distributed by the Indiana Department of Transportation.
The TRAM service has an annual budget of about $600,000, which comes from a local match.
“We were hoping the change would not have taken place until the end of year,” Bridges said. “We learned in February that the change could happen. We’re looking at options.”
The City of Anderson Transit System (CATS) only provides service within the city limits.
At the Madison County Commissioner’s meeting on April 16, Mark Yaudas with Hillcroft Services, which operates the county’s TRAM service, said the company would stop providing the service at the end of the year.
“We can’t provide the service after the end of the year,” he said. “The change will reduce ridership by 30%.”
Yaudas said there are 21 daily riders from the Pendleton area into Anderson for work.
County Engineer Jessica Bastin said the urbanized area is reviewed on an annual basis and the county will be seeking to have the state do another study.
Bridges said TRAM has an annual ridership of 15,000 trips.
The trips cannot start and end in the urbanized area, he explained.
“The highest ridership was pre-COVID,” Bridges said.
He said none of the county officials want the service to be terminated and the process has started to find a new service provider.
The county owns six TRAM vehicles with Hillcroft Services leasing each for a $1 per year. Hillcroft is responsible for insurance and maintenance of the vehicles.
“Hillcroft has been a great provider,” Bridges said.
The cost for a TRAM trip is $2.50 for residents over the age of 60 and $4 for all other riders.
Bridges said the cost of each trip is an estimated $28 to $30 dollars with the subsidies covering much of the expense.
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