MonumentCircle

It’s not easy being a bus driver, but Bob is glad to have the job. “I started with IndyGo after driving tractor-trailers from New York to California. I got tired of being on the road as a truck driver,” he said recently, steering his bus near the end of his route. I’m not using Bob’s real name so he can speak freely, but he’s a friendly guy who enjoys the job and is nice to the passengers. “I wanted to be home with my family instead of being on the road,” he said. “So when I got into this game it was like, OK, instead of being in a hurry all the time like when you’re driving a truck, I could take my time and take care of the passengers. As Jackie Gleason said, ‘How sweet it is.’” IndyGo is looking for coach operators as it prepares to start the new Red Line this year and implement a 70 percent expansion in service. The job isn’t for everybody, and the numbers show it. The bus company had 682 total employees at the end of 2018, nearly 20 percent below capacity. I...

Some good news at last night’s IndyGo board meeting about Open Door. The Indianapolis paratransit service was running at an on-time rate of 89 percent at the end of December, according to Roscoe Brown, Vice President of operations. That’s compared with 65 percent in August. WTHR-TV reported in November that the bus company had withheld $960,307 in payments to contractor Transdev for poor service. Brown said IndyGo has withheld October payments, but released payments for November and December “minus liquidated damages.” Transdev is on track to achieve its contract goal of 95 percent on-time performance, Brown said. A representative for the company said the improvements had been achieved by adjusting the “run-cut,” or driver scheduling. Peak demand time for Open Door is 7-8 a.m., but most of the drivers were starting work at 9 a.m. “They had already missed the party,” the representative told board members. IndyGo is issuing an RFP to look at best practices for p...