IndyGo Redline Repairs

[DoggyDaddy]

The old trolleys, etc. were built and run at a profit, whether electric or horsedrawn. Taxpayers were not necessary. Now, I'm not saying the trolleys could make a go now, but the fact was, they paid attention to the engineering of the cars, and whatever physical plant they used, because if a system went down, so did the profit. This had to be a .gov project, because nobody but nobody would think they could operate it at a profit. Especially when your routes are determined by the Central Committee. Just imagine an entire economy planned by the Central Committee. It would be... something I'm sure we could come up with a word for. The biggest trouble with mass transit in Indianapolis is there aren't enough people in one place that all want to go to the same other place.

They have a target audience for users. I don't think it's a coincidence that it runs from the party Mecca of Broadripple to the campus of U of Indy.

 

[MCgrease08]

IndyGo admits stumbling start to Red Line launch

Wow. By nearly every metric the Red Line has been an abject failure.

 

[churchmouse]

IndyGo admits stumbling start to Red Line launch

Wow. By nearly every metric the Red Line has been an abject failure.

Go figure.

Also the idiotic electric car rental thing. I would like to see how much that load of Horse cost us.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I especially liked the part where they said they were going to have to use diesel heaters to heat the electric buses. Can't they just install a windmill on top of each bus to power the heaters?

 

[Vigilant]

Wow, color me surprised!

 

[eldirector]

IndyGo admits stumbling start to Red Line launch

Wow. By nearly every metric the Red Line has been an abject failure.

The only solution? DOUBLE DOWN.

https://www.indystar.com/story/news...brt-bus-indianapolis-what-happens/3681960002/

 

[MCgrease08]

I especially liked the part where they said they were going to have to use diesel heaters to heat the electric buses. Can't they just install a windmill on top of each bus to power the heaters?

Right? Those super green electric buses, charged with electricity from coal fired power plants.

 

[KMaC]

IndyGo admits stumbling start to Red Line launch

Wow. By nearly every metric the Red Line has been an abject failure.

The Red line has operated for less than six months.
The stations are dirty and covered with grafitti.
The ticket vending kiosks don't accept cash.
The $1.3M electric buses don't get the "mileage" claimed and weren't designed to provide heat for riders.
The median barriers are broken and need replaced with different materials.
Ridership is 38% of goal levels and collapsed as soon as fares were charged.
The goal is to have 90% of riders pay their fare by checking 20% of riders' for tickets (however you achieve that?) but a sufficient number of inspectors still isn't in place to even know how far away that goal is.
The whole operation requires an annual $5.4M "donation" from unspecified sources through a fund raising organization that has yet to be established. That "donation" will dramatically increase when the Purple Line opens.
What a **** show! Taxpayers will be paying for this for generations to come.

 

[BigRed]

Our money would be better spent on gallows to hang these bastards and put an end to this bull****.

 

[Vigilant]

The Red line has operated for less than six months.
The stations are dirty and covered with grafitti.
The ticket vending kiosks don't accept cash.
The $1.3M electric buses don't get the "mileage" claimed and weren't designed to provide heat for riders.
The median barriers are broken and need replaced with different materials.
Ridership is 38% of goal levels and collapsed as soon as fares were charged.
The goal is to have 90% of riders pay their fare by checking 20% of riders' for tickets (however you achieve that?) but a sufficient number of inspectors still isn't in place to even know how far away that goal is.
The whole operation requires an annual $5.4M "donation" from unspecified sources through a fund raising organization that has yet to be established. That "donation" will dramatically increase when the Purple Line opens.
What a **** show! Taxpayers will be paying for this for generations to come.

aYour leaders say, SUCCESSFUL!

 

[MCgrease08]

IndyGo cancels BYD electric bus order

IndyGo is cutting their loses on the electric busses and going back to diesel. This may be the smartest move they've made so far during this entire goat rope.

Stung by the inability of its Chinese-made electric buses to go the full distance promised without a recharge, IndyGo has announced it is canceling a contract to buy five more BYD coaches for its popular Route 39 along East 38th Street.

Instead, IndyGo’s Board of Directors has approved a $7.5 million contract to buy 13 40-foot Gillig diesel-powered buses to run the route.

During the Board’s February meeting Thursday, directors were told the need to recharge the groundbreaking electric buses well short of their promised 275-mile limit has forced IndyGo to devote all 31 of its existing BYD buses to the 13-mile long Red Line, leaving no spare coaches to service Route 39.

 

[churchmouse]

....Electric buses.....

 

[Vigilant]

....Electric buses.....

...Idiots that supported this fiasco in the first place...

 

[jkaetz]

IndyGo cancels BYD electric bus order

IndyGo is cutting their loses on the electric busses and going back to diesel. This may be the smartest move they've made so far during this entire goat rope.

Imagine that, the range of an electric vehicle is short of its claims.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Imagine that, the range of an electric vehicle is short of its claims.

Especially if your passengers want heat in the winter.

 

[ATOMonkey]

If only there had been another city, in say... Albuquerque maybe, that had gone through this and already found out it was disaster...

https://insideevs.com/news/341319/albuquerque-plans-to-reject-and-return-byd-electric-buses/

...if only...

 

[Ingomike]

Interesting that some municipalities are finding it cheaper to subsidize Uber than run a bus line. I see the huge busses running empty. Are they ever full?

In Dallas, the city was able to save $10 per ride when it contracted a portion of its coverage to Uber. Similarly, in Ontario, Canada, city officials scrappedthe idea to implement a bus route that would’ve cost $26 per trip when they found that Uber would only charge $7 per rider. And in 2015, after Denver startedto subsidize Uber rides to the airport, David Genova, chief executive of the Regional Transportation District at Denver’s Union Station boasted that his “colleagues around the country are very, very interested in this

A National Bureau Economic of Research paperfound that privatizing every bus route in the nation would save around $6 billion in tax dollars along while simulating an extra $500 million in economic activity.

And while some might be skeptical about replacing the bus with ridesharing, one city has shown it can work. Already in Arlington, Texas, the city has had great success after it decided to scrap its bus system in favor of the rideshare company, Via, which has given residents the ability to ride for only $3.



https://townhall.com/columnists/jan...esharing-would-be-a-win-for-everyone-n2562031

 

[Denny347]

Interesting that some municipalities are finding it cheaper to subsidize Uber than run a bus line. I see the huge busses running empty. Are they ever full?

In Dallas, the city was able to save $10 per ride when it contracted a portion of its coverage to Uber. Similarly, in Ontario, Canada, city officials scrappedthe idea to implement a bus route that would’ve cost $26 per trip when they found that Uber would only charge $7 per rider. And in 2015, after Denver startedto subsidize Uber rides to the airport, David Genova, chief executive of the Regional Transportation District at Denver’s Union Station boasted that his “colleagues around the country are very, very interested in this

A National Bureau Economic of Research paperfound that privatizing every bus route in the nation would save around $6 billion in tax dollars along while simulating an extra $500 million in economic activity.

And while some might be skeptical about replacing the bus with ridesharing, one city has shown it can work. Already in Arlington, Texas, the city has had great success after it decided to scrap its bus system in favor of the rideshare company, Via, which has given residents the ability to ride for only $3.



https://townhall.com/columnists/jan...esharing-would-be-a-win-for-everyone-n2562031

BRILLIANT!!! Save taxpayers money, boost the local economy, and still provide a needed service.

 

[churchmouse]

BRILLIANT!!! Save taxpayers money, boost the local economy, and still provide a needed service.

And eliminate all the Payola. Pay outs and payoffs to the big wigs in the contracting aspect of this entire fiasco. People got rich.

 

[MCgrease08]

IndyGo is slowing down service for the Red Line and 2 other routes

IndyGo is reducing weekday service on its first bus rapid-transit system, the Red Line, from every 10 minutes to every 15 minutes. Service will drop to every 30 minutes on its northern and southern extensions.

The changes, which start Sunday, are the Red Line's first route-wide slowdowns to come out of IndyGo's regular review process. The year-old Red Line is currently scheduled to run every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 minutes on weekends, occasionally with longer intervals in the evening hours.

Spokesperson Faith Chadwick emphasized that the changes are a result of that review, which takes place three times a year. The process looks to improve service efficiency by considering factors such as ridership and on-time performance, she said.

The Red Line isn't alone: Route 8 between Indianapolis International Airport and the Indianapolis Zoo will now run with 30-minute frequency instead of 15 minutes on weekdays, and Route 10 will move to a 20-minute frequency east of Lynhurst Drive and a 40-minute frequency on its westbound branches on weekdays.

IndyGo increased the frequency of both Route 8 and Route 10 in February, a little more than a month before the transit corporation moved all routes to a Saturday schedule six days a week due to the pandemic. Routes returned to their regular schedules on June 1.

The new changes comes as IndyGo removes more than 500 bus stops in what it says is an effort to speed up service.

Service efficiency is also a reason for the reduced frequency, IndyGo said in a Monday morning news release. Eighty-two percent of fixed-route buses ran on time in August, according to IndyGo board documents. On-time performance has improved during the pandemic.

The transit agency also cited changes in travel patterns and reduced ridership.

IndyGo has seen a significant loss in ridership this year due to the pandemic, though numbers have started to rebound in recent months. Still, the transit corporation saw 43.4% fewer passenger trips in August 2020 than August 2019. Through the end of August, total passenger trips in 2020 were down 33.6% compared to the same time last year.

The Red Line has not been spared from the ridership declines.

Before the pandemic, the Red Line averaged 4,700 passenger trips on weekdays, according to data presented at an IndyGo board meeting late last month. That weekday average sank to 2,500 passenger trips during the pandemic, falling as low as 1,442 on May 27, a Wednesday.

Last year Red Line ridership fell heading into the winter. This winter IndyGo will once again seek to keep its electric buses running on schedule despite decreased ranges in cold weather.

Here is another article behind their subscriber pay wall, so I haven't read it and it's likely no one here can access it, but when you even have the Indy Star calling the Redline a failure, you know this whole thing really is a disaster.

The Red Line failed in the most predictable, infuriating way