EDITORIAL: RTA needs funding muscle to guide trains, buses in region

Times of Northwest Indiana

The quest for a permanent funding source for the Regional Bus Authority has morphed into a proposal for a Regional Transportation Authority.

Everything old is new again.

This authority would oversee both bus and commuter rail services, taking both the RBA and Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District functions under its umbrella.

The RTA proposal would require the Indiana General Assembly's approval. So far, the idea looks promising.

Buses and trains are both elements of public transportation. Their schedules must be coordinated to best move people across the region, plus to and from downtown Chicago.

"If we can organize a seamless system that meets the needs of the entire region rather than just one section, we may have something that's far more appealing than any one on its own," said Leigh Morris, chairman of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

That's the key to making this work.

Northwest Indiana has many disjointed bus services that are slowly being brought into one system. If school buses are included, the number of bus lines operating in the region, all supported with public money, mushrooms.

For efficiency's sake, the many services need to be combined. There will be one phone number to call, and there should be seamless route planning to make it easy to traverse the region.

The bus and train services need to be joined at the hip, not operating in parallel universes.

Creating the RTA without arranging for a permanent funding source for public transportation also would be foolish.

That funding should allow not just for operation of the service as it now exists, but for expansion of both rail and bus service as well.

Otherwise, the RTA is nothing but another acronym, not the asset it could become.

So far, the RTA plan involves only Lake and Porter counties, but LaPorte and St. Joseph counties could be added later. With the South Shore rail service extending into those counties, a wider RTA footprint makes sense.

The RTA proposal has received mixed reviews so far from area legislators. They need to work out their differences and unite behind a proposal so it can succeed downstate.