IndyGo to unveil refurbed articulated buses

IndyGo is introducing 17 newly refurbished 60-foot articulated buses on Route 39 – East 38th Street and Route 8 – Washington, offering more capacity on the popular routes.

“The introduction of these ‘bendy’ buses into our fleet is very exciting as it will improve our customer experience,” said IndyGo President/CEO Mike Terry. “They will increase the passenger capacity on our busiest routes and enhance the overall performance of our transit system.”

These high capacity buses are 20 feet longer than the traditional buses in IndyGo’s fleet and can accommodate 40% more passengers. The necessity of buses has been proven by Routes 39 and 8 alone, which together delivered nearly 250,000 trips in September of this year, more than a quarter of the entire system’s ridership.

Passengers will begin seeing articulated buses on Route 39 this week and Route 8 after the first of the year.

Indianapolis was first introduced to the articulated buses in the mid 1980s, but they were retired in the 1990s when they reached their usable life. In February of this year, IndyGo improved the frequency of Routes 8 and 39 to every 15 minutes on weekdays and as a result, ridership has seen a double-digit percentage increase over 2012. To keep up with the increasing number of passengers, IndyGo decided to bring back articulated buses with the purchase of 17 newly refurbished ones.

Frequent service and increased capacity are two keys to improving transit in Indianapolis. The introduction of these buses on Route 39 which travels on Meridian Street from downtown to 38th Street and east to Mitthoefer Road, and Route 8 that traverses Washington Street from the Airport on the west side to Meijer on the east side, is expected to help ridership continue to grow.