BY MARTIN ZABELL, Times of Northwest Indiana Correspondent
CROWN POINT | A three-member panel of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority board members Thursday supported a Regional Bus Authority proposal for improved services in Northwest Indiana.
The RDA's full seven-member board will consider the plan Tuesday.
"This is eminently sensible,' board member Howard Cohen said, moments before the RDA's Committee on Bus Services approved the plan.
The voice vote followed a 20-minute presentation by bus authority project manager Kenneth Dallmeyer and a 30-minute discussion.
The plan featured a request for $6.5 million from the RDA so the bus authority can, among other projects:
* Start an express service to and from downtown Chicago from south Lake County and Porter County.
* Double the number of bus trips in the three cities that now have regular service -- East Chicago, Gary and Hammond.
* Improve the Broadway (Ind. 53) Gary to Merrillville route and increase the number of trips it offers.
* Install a central dispatch system so passengers can more easily obtain information and buses can be utilized more efficiently.
RDA board members Cohen, Carmen Fernandez, Lou Martinez and executive director Tim Sanders said they were receptive to the plan.
"All the studies have shown there is a demand for better service,' Cohen said after the meeting. "We are underserved.'
Martinez said improved service would spur the region's economy.
"A good transit infrastructure is essential to a long-term vision of economic development,' he added.
Thursday's discussion at the Purdue Technology Center focused on Fernandez's inquiries about whether bus service to Chicago was needed. She noted that trains travel to Chicago. RBA vice president Stephen Adik countered that bus service would dramatically reduce daily travel time for residents of Valparaiso and nearby towns.
Currently, people in central and south Lake County drive to train stations in East Chicago and Hammond before boarding trains.
Dallmeyer said the Chicago route would accommodate people in Valparaiso, Crown Point, Merrillville and Hobart.
"(Service to Chicago) gives us an opportunity to get people from Northwest Indiana to high-paying jobs in Chicago,' Adik said.
Sanders expressed concern about the bus services of East Chicago, Gary or Hammond opposing the plan. Bus authority president Dennis Rittenmeyer responded that they were represented on the RBA board, which approved the plan 15-1 on Tuesday.
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