Report: More "urgency" needed on Lake County bus consolidation

By Keith Benman, Times of Northwest Indiana
keith.benman@nwi.com

The Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority likely will not meet a July 1 deadline for consolidating bus services, a report delivered to the Regional Development Authority concludes.

The report from transportation consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff calls for more urgency in the effort.

"Work has been done, but we are simply not where we have to be at this point," RDA Chairman Leigh Morris told four other members of the board at a meeting Thursday.

The report also concludes that bus services in Hammond, East Chicago and Gary could be merged using current financing provided by those cities.

That would yield about $500,000 in savings, according to an early Parsons Brinckerhoff report.

But consolidating just those three bus services would fall far short of the regional bus service the RDA has envisioned. A previous report estimated the effort would take about $8 million per year in extra funding.

In response to the report, the RDA has told the RBA to hire Parsons Brinckerhoff to come up with a concrete plan for consolidating bus companies, including routes, fares and other details.

The RDA also wants to impose a timeline on the RDA for implementation of the consolidation under a motion passed 5-0 at the RDA committee meeting. Those actions must be ratified by the full RDA board at its meeting next week.

The action comes one day after the RDA learned about the resignation of longtime RBA President Dennis Rittenmeyer, who announced this week he will step down by June 1.

The RDA action appears to sidestep the issue of long-term funding for regional bus service, which Rittenmeyer cited as the major problem standing in its way.

A move to secure a food and beverage tax to fund regional bus service has been attacked from many quarters.

At the same time, the region's dominant dial-a-ride service for the elderly and handicapped bus service shut down for lack of funding in January, and Hammond Transit also remains in long-term danger of shutting down.

"My concern continues to be the overall funding that can get us where we want to get," said RDA member Bill Joiner.

Board member Harley Snyder said a regional bus system is still the RDA's goal, in large part because it will serve as an economic development tool connecting people to jobs.