Residents and visitors near the Greenwood Park Mall will soon get 20- hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week bus service with the opening of the IndyGo Red Line.
The route will extend from the Circle City’s northern boundary south to the southern boundary at Madison Avenue and County Line Road, where Marion County becomes Johnson County.
While the line is expected to serve 11,000 riders every day, including those who traveling near the mall, those in downtown Greenwood and along Smith Valley Road will lose IndyGo service. IndyGo’s Route 31 currently has weekend, early morning, and evening service from Smith Valley Road to downtown Indianapolis via Madison Avenue, but that direct connection will be eliminated when the Red Line opens.
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Access Johnson County offers service Monday through Friday. The U.S. 31 Zip Line, runs between the mall and the Franklin Walmart from 6:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every 30 minutes (7 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. in the other direction) with Franklin local routes running every hour from 7:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., and Greenwood local routes running every hour from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Riders can reserve an off-schedule ride 24 hours in advance anywhere from Greenwood Park Mall to Edinburgh Outlet Mall between 6:15 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
The lack of weekend public transportation for those who will lose their IndyGo transit option, however, remains an issue that Access Johnson County Transportation Director Becky Allen said will remain unresolved unless Access Johnson County gets an increase in funding from the state or federal departments of transportation.
When Access Johnson County began services in 1995, there was 24-hour service between Stop 11 Road in Indianapolis and Edinburgh Outlet Mall. The service cut hours over time due to budget cuts, and eventually cut Sunday service in 2012 and Saturday service in 2014, Allen said.
When the IndyGo Red Line was announced in 2017, it included the potential for expanded service in Johnson and Hamilton Counties. But those counties would have to fund the expansions themselves.
In Johnson County, that expansion would cost $11.6 million, which would include not only the construction of bus stations south of County Line Road to Smith Valley Road, but also infrastructure improvements to sidewalks, curb ramps and roadways near the stations, as well as traffic signal upgrades.
Bill Hart, a Pleasant Township trustee, said a Red Line extension is not being discussed to his knowledge. Pleasant Township covers the geographic area that a Red Line Johnson County extension would run through.
“If that money is not made up by income tax, the township has to pay for it,” Hart said. “Our budget is not very high to begin with. I don’t know where we would get the money to pay for that.”
The service cut will impact the 21 passengers who board and 52 passengers who get off the 31 bus south of Greenwood Park Mall on a typical day. The mall was not included in the data as a rerouted 31 bus will still terminate at the mall, albeit less frequently.
In Marion County, the first phase of the project will cost $96.3 million to complete, and was largely helped along by $75 million in federal funds approved in May. Phase 1, which IndyGo has already begun construction on, will include new stations, infrastructure improvements and service every 10 minutes from Broad Ripple to the University of Indianapolis.
Although Indianapolis’ far south side will not receive new infrastructure and stations until 2021, County Line Road will get the service of every third Red Line bus as soon as the route opens to customers.
The change in hours will make a marked difference for those who rely on Madison Avenue Service. The service from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. every day will be an upgrade from current hours, which sees service between County Line Road and downtown from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday (every 30 minutes), from 6 a.m. to 8:40 p.m. Saturday (every hour), and from 8 a.m. to 7:50 p.m. Sunday (every hour).
When the Red Line opens, Route 31 service will be rerouted to replace Route 22 via East Street and U.S. 31, and will offer service once every hour. The schedule for the new Route 31 service has not been finalized. Route 16, which has service to Emerson Avenue and County Line Road, will be replaced by Route 23, which will run the same route.
