Grant lifts GPTC while RBA fate murky

• Reprints

Updated: March 20, 2012 8:18AM

A federal grant has allowed the Gary Public Transit Corp. to expand its routes into Black Oak, Calumet Township and Griffith, while the funding clock is ticking down on the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority.

Funding could run out for the RBA by the end of June.

RBA Director Tim Brown issued a plea for help at a meeting of transportation planners last week.

“Tell your local officials we need money,” Brown said at a Transportation Policy Committee meeting of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.

A lack of sustainable funding is imperiling the operation of the RBA, established in 2005 by the General Assembly.

The Lake County Council has balked at enacting a tax to fund transit. A House bill to use casino taxes to fund the RBA died in the General Assembly, but another effort to direct about $9.4 million in casino funding used for low-income homestead tax credits is still alive.

State Sen. Earline Rogers has prepared the legislation, but it isn’t clear what will happen to it. Rogers wants a consensus of support from mayors in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.

If a funding plan isn’t reached, required public hearings regarding the RBA shutdown will be held March 29 and April 26 at the Hammond Public Library and Purdue University Calumet.

The RBA operates bus service in Hammond and six other communities, and express buses to Chicago. It’s funded now through the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

Meanwhile, GPTC used money from a three-year U.S. Department of Transportation grant to start five regional routes in new markets, and add more evening service. The new routes began Jan. 30. GPTC marketing director David Wright said ridership has increased an average of 800 to 900 riders per day, about a 20 percent increase over 2011.

Wright said the second highest ridership was on the new Burr-Lake Ridge corridor route to Griffith which he said hasn’t had service for a decade.

The GPTC now operates 10 routes, five of which are regional, Wright said. Last summer, it was forced to cut evening and weekend routes. With the new routes, weeknight service has been restored and operates later with most routes ending between 8 and 10 p.m.

The new Burr-Lake Ridge route provides hourly service from the Adam Benjamin Metro Center and Griffith Plaza on Ridge Road. GPTC is returning its half-hour service to Broadway in Gary and Merrillville, adding a new route that serves Broadway to 61st Avenue in Merrillville and Hobart. A third route, “The Pulaski Flyer” will be launched in the spring and provide express service between Gary and Hobart/Merrillville along Interstate 65.

Reach reporter Carole Carlson at 648-3154.