Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority will go to General Assembly for funding

BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com

The Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority is seeking backing for legislation that would fund bus service throughout the region and rescue failing bus companies such as Hammond Transit.

"Our plan is to work with the railroad (South Shore) and folks at the Indiana Transportation Association to come up with a legislative funding plan that would help build public transit in Indiana," said RBA Chairman Dennis Rittenmeyer.

Rittenmeyer's call comes less than a week after Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, said he would introduce legislation to fund the South Shore extension but dismissed the idea of seeking funds for buses.

On Tuesday, Dobis repeated his charges that the RBA lacks a plan for providing regional bus service.

"This looks like a typical Lake County operation: Give us the money, and we'll do whatever we want to do," Dobis said.

Rittenmeyer said the RBA has a plan for regional bus service, which it settled on after reviewing a feasibility study completed by TransSystems, a nationally known transportation consultant.

More recently, Rittenmeyer laid out a plan for the gradual takeover of bus systems in Hammond, Gary and East Chicago.

Rittenmeyer said he wants Northwest Indiana to take an approach similar to that of the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority, which wants to develop commuter rail and bus service together.

"The problem we always have here is we are balkanized," Rittenmeyer said. "How many times have we heard we just can't get our act together in Northwest Indiana?"

The RBA has received approval for two years of pilot program funding from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. But that funding did not anticipate the cash crunch that threatens to put Hammond Transit, East Chicago Transit and demand-response bus providers out of business, Rittenmeyer said.