This morning, I was able to visit The Hall to view the Indygo route changes, which are set to come next year with the opening of the new Transit Center. I took some photos of the posterboards that are on display, but they are better seen in person. According to IndyGo on twitter, these changes will be online next Monday.
First, a look at how the transit center will work. Most of this is actually self-explanatory:
The downtown bus loop will be eliminated, affording more direct routes, and potentially shaving
a few minutes off of the time the buses spend in the downtown area:
Proposed midday frequency map. This one is tough to photograph:
I live near Broad Ripple, and I had limited time this morning, so I focused on the changes on the north side of town for now.
Here are the changes for the Broad Ripple and Lafayette Square Buses:
Eliminated routing appears in red, while the new routes appear in orange. The Broad Ripple bus is no longer called the College Avenue bus, as it is routed down Meridian Street south of 38th Street. This is the same alignment as the proposed Red Line. The bus will also travel down Broad Ripple Avenue 2 times and eliminate service along Kessler Boulevard. The Lafayette Square bus will cover College Avenue south of 38th Street.
Next are the changes for the Nora and Castleton buses:
The Nora Bus will go past Butler’s campus, and will shift from Meridian to the Illinois/Capitol one way pairs.  The Castleton bus now runs down Meridian Street south of 38th, but is otherwise unchanged.
There is much to be excited about regarding the potential for these changes. The IndyGo representative mentioned that the Meridian Street corridor may have a bus every 7 minutes at peak times. Any new development along that street should be as transit-friendly as possible.
I will summarize the other changes in future posts, as I’m going to attend the open house this evening from 4-6 pm.
Thank you for posting this. I have been looking online for 2 days for the new maps and only found them here. Plus the when-online info.
It is great news to know that Route 18 will go past Butler!!!!!!!!
I am late in seeing this, but as a totally blind bus rider, I am concerned about these changes for a number of reasons, most notably, the relocation of the 17 and 19 to Meridian. I live a block west of 16th and College, and right now I use these routes often, although walking to Delaware to reach the outbound 19 is a bit of a stretch for me already. Does this mean I’ll need to catch the new 38, which will be on College, and take it to 38th and College to transfer in order to get to Castleton? Is that intersection even safe for pedestrians? I don’t understand what sense it makes to move these routes, considering there are already buses on Meridian as is. So why divert the already existing Meridian routes to parallel streets, just to put other routes on Meridian? I just hope these changes do not force riders like myself, and my wheelchair bound wife, off the fixed route and onto Open Door paratransit, which can be unreliable.
Ryne — I can’t say for sure about all the relocations, but the 17 is being moved to Meridian in order to mimic the future Red Line route. The 17 will probably be eliminated when the Red Line becomes active.