Bus funding faces detour
By Chelsea Schneider Kirk cschneider@post-trib.com November 26, 2011 11:38PM
Justice Rutherford of Hammond (center) rides the Easy Go bus as it makes its way through north Hammond, Ind. Tuesday November 15, 2011. Rutherford uses the bus service about twice a week. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media
EasyGo Riders
Ridership on the RBA’s EasyGo Routes has grown since the lines were instituted. The Brown Route was discontinued in October.
May: 23,530
June: 24,116
July: 23,405
August: 28,438
September: 29,067
October: 27,214
Source: RBA Planning Director Ken Dallmeyer
If you go
What: Public hearing for the RBA’s EasyGo Chicago commuter service
When: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at the Dyer Baptist Church, 735 213th St., Dyer.
Discuss: Eliminating one of two buses on the Chicago route
Info: www.rba-nwi.org
Article Extras
Updated: December 28, 2011 8:07AM
Patrice Johnson’s daily schedule takes her to the Hammond Area Career Center for GED classes and Lincoln Elementary to pick up her son.
To get there, the Hammond resident relies on public transportation.
Johnson boarded the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority’s EasyGo Red Route on a recent Tuesday. Her older kids use the same bus system to get home from extracurricular activities at school.
If the RBA fails to find long-term funding, the budget to operate the buses will run out by the end of June leaving Johnson and other EasyGo riders scrambling to find another way to get around.
“If they cut out transportation, I’m not able to get a car,” Johnson said. “We would have to move to another area.”
Ridership has generally grown on the RBA’s EasyGo routes, instituted in August 2010 after Hammond consolidated its bus system with the regional transportation network.
But the RBA has experienced hits and misses in establishing service.
The former Brown Route to the Lake County Government Center was discontinued because of low use.
A public hearing on Nov. 29 will gauge input on reducing the commuter bus service into Chicago from two buses to one.
‘People really need it’
In financial terms, the RBA is at a fork in the road.
The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority will stop giving the RBA funding to operate its services at the end of next month. Last session, the Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly held that the RBA should find a local solution for the buses.
The RBA has until the middle of next year to find that solution, or its riders are at risk of losing the service.
Riding north through Hammond on the Red Route and south on the Green Route through Whiting and East Chicago, patrons took the bus for myriad reasons – a way to work, classes at Purdue University Calumet and trips to stores.
Johnson worries about senior citizens if the bus system doesn’t gain funding and a shut down is inevitable.
“People really need it,” Johnson said. “Seniors don’t have people they can always call.”
Connecting from Illinois, beyond
Seneca Brown of Calumet City, Ill., connects from suburban Illinois’ Pace bus system to the EasyGo on his way to work at the new Hammond Wal-Mart.
Brown accidentally boarded the wrong bus his first day of taking the system. The driver notified dispatch to tell the correct bus to wait.
“It is pretty convenient,” Brown said. “Compared to Chicago, it’s a lot smoother of a ride.”
Like Brown, Aubrey Myhand of Chicago connects to EasyGo from Pace. He found out about the RBA from a friend and the Blue Route drops him off right in front of work on 165th Street.
“The main reason I ended up on the bus is because my car took a crap on me,” Myhand said.
Harry Sides of Hammond isn’t worried about the bus system’s future.
“They say that every year, and they always come up with the money,” Sides said.
He just wants the Red and Green routes to go back to half-hour service during morning and evening rush hours.
And by January Sides should get his wish. The RBA plans to use federal funds to restore full service on those routes.
“It gets cold,” Sides said, “if you just miss it.”
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