Bloomington Transit

2026

• 2026-06-04 Articulated bus arrival. Bloomington Transit’s first 60-foot New Flyer articulated bus arrives at the Grimes Lane depot, the first of three buses acquired for a combined $3.5 million and planned mainly for high-ridership IU-oriented routes such as Routes 6 and 12. [BSB coverage]

• 2026-06-01 BLink expansion. Bloomington Transit launches June 1 service changes that include expanded BLink microtransit service, a new route, and fare-free rides for Passenger Appreciation Week; a B Square test ride finds the app has rough spots but the trip to Griffy Lake works in both directions. [BSB coverage]

• 2026-05-19 Route 16 and Bloomington Transit for Everyone. Bloomington Transit board members approve service changes for June 1, including Route 16, which combines Route 13 and Route 3 West to serve Ivy Tech, Cook Medical, and the west side, along with the “Bloomington Transit for Everyone” service-marketing initiative and fare-free rides June 1–June 7. [BSB coverage]

• 2026-04-10 Ridership strategy shift. Bloomington Transit weighs changes after a roughly 16% fixed-route ridership drop early in 2026, including deploying articulated buses, combining Route 13 and Route 3 into a proposed Route 16, and expanding microtransit options. [BSB coverage]

• 2026-04-08 Operations center: Appraisal. BB Profile, LLC accepts a $3.6 million appraisal for the former ABB/Westinghouse property at Curry Pike and Profile Parkway, below the $3.8 million Bloomington Transit budgets, while BT awaits an Indiana Finance Authority “comfort letter” on environmental liability before closing. [BSB coverage]

• 2026-03-10 Route 13 county funding. Monroe County councilors unanimously approve $184,104 in EDIT funding to keep Bloomington Transit Route 13 operating for one year between downtown Bloomington and the Ivy Tech–Park 48 corridor. [BSB coverage]

• 2026-02-13 Route 13 warning. Bloomington Transit warns that Route 13, linking downtown Bloomington to Ivy Tech Community College and Cook Medical, can end March 8 unless Monroe County supplies about $184,000, with weak ridership and funding timing both unresolved. [BSB coverage]

2025

• 2025-12-30 Operations center: Former Westinghouse property option. Bloomington Transit’s board approves a 180-day option to purchase roughly 19 acres at the former ABB/Westinghouse property at Curry Pike and Profile Parkway for a new operations center, with the final price to be set by appraisal and the current owner identified as BB Profile, LLC. [BSB coverage] [copy of board packet] [copy of Phase IIc report]

• 2025-11-19 Microtransit marketing. With fixed-route ridership slipping, Bloomington Transit works on a “Bloomington Transit for Everyone” umbrella to unify fixed-route service and BLink microtransit, while considering expanded BLink hours and citywide coverage. [BSB coverage]

• 2025-10-21 Operations center: Bidder update. Bloomington Transit’s board receives an update on a BOT process for the new operations, maintenance, and administration facility after two finalist teams, 523 Development and GM Development, become connected through GM Development’s acquisition of 523 Development; fixed-route ridership through September is down about 6% year over year. [BSB coverage]

• 2025-09-26 Green Line bus-stop funding. Bloomington Transit’s board approves a $300,000 local match toward a $4.11 million accessible bus-stop project, including four Green Line-compatible level-boarding platforms, while August fixed-route rides are 151,436, down 14.4% from August 2024 and 34.3% from August 2023. [BSB coverage]

• 2025-08-19 Operations center: PCB borings. General manager John Connell tells the Bloomington Transit board that nine of 10 borings on the possible operations-center site are clean but one detects PCBs, and the board adds $55,000 to Hanson Professional Services’ contract for 10 more borings, bringing the agreement to $384,000. [BSB coverage]

• 2025-07-23 SEA 1 and transit funding. B Square reports that SEA 1’s elimination of the economic development local income tax category threatens the long-term continuation of nearly $4 million per year in Bloomington LIT support for Bloomington Transit, while the 2026 budget no longer includes the prior year’s $12.5 million land-acquisition line because the property purchase is pending environmental review. [BSB coverage]

• 2025-06-17 Operations center: Environmental study and fleet changes. Bloomington Transit’s board approves a $79,000 Hanson Professional Services addendum for an abbreviated NEPA Phase II study on the operations-center property, approves the July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026 IU agreement at $1,251,726, and authorizes scrapping six 2005–2008 buses as battery-electric buses arrive. [BSB coverage] [copy of board packet]

• 2025-05-20 BLink downtown pilot and articulated buses. Bloomington Transit’s board approves a June 2 pilot allowing free curb-to-curb BLink rides inside the Downtown zone on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and approves buying three 60-foot New Flyer articulated buses for a total authorization of $3.5 million. [BSB coverage]

• 2025-04-25 SEA 1 local-income-tax structure. B Square reports that SEA 1 raises the county LIT cap from 2.5% to 2.9% and allows municipal-only local income taxes, changing assumptions behind Bloomington’s 2022 ED LIT increase that helps fund Bloomington Transit. [BSB coverage]

• 2025-04-15 Operations center: Right of first refusal. Bloomington Transit’s board approves Resolution 25-07 authorizing Connell to execute a right-of-first-refusal agreement for an undisclosed operations-center property at up to $3,334 per month for six months, and Resolution 25-08 authorizing up to $100,000 for a preliminary Phase II Environmental Site Assessment. [BSB coverage] [copy of resolutions]

• 2025-03-25 Operations center: Location preview. Connell tells the Bloomington Transit board that the location of the planned new operations facility could be revealed in a couple of weeks, after the FTA grants a categorical exclusion under NEPA and Phase I review and appraisals are completed. [BSB coverage]

2024

• 2024-07-16 2025 budget, land acquisition, Green Line. Bloomington Transit’s board is briefed on a $32.6 million draft 2025 budget that includes about $12.5 million for land acquisition, acknowledges that a $35 million federal construction grant has not been awarded, and includes a Green Line Phase 1 presentation with possible high-end capital costs of $165 million. [BSB coverage]

• 2024-07-15 BLink launch. Bloomington Transit launches BLink microtransit as a zone-based on-demand service using an app or phone request, with weekday service from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., a $2 fare, and service in North, East, and Downtown zones. [BSB coverage]

• 2024-04-10 City council grant support. Bloomington city council votes 8–0, with Andy Ruff absent, for a resolution supporting Bloomington Transit’s $35 million FTA Section 5339(b) application for a new operations, maintenance, and administration complex needed for the Green Line and a larger battery-electric fleet. [BSB coverage]

• 2024-03-19 Operations center: Federal facility grant application. Bloomington Transit’s board approves a resolution authorizing Connell to apply for $35 million in federal funding toward a $43.75 million operations and bus-storage complex, part of a $54.4 million project that also includes $10 million for land acquisition and $600,000 for architectural and engineering work. [BSB coverage]

2023

• 2023-09-19 Green Line study, chargers, dispatch software. Bloomington Transit’s board approves $2.8 million in spending: a $450,000 Foursquare ITP feasibility study for an east-west high-frequency corridor, an $850,000 ETA Transit CAD/AVL contract, and $1.5 million for eight Gillig dual-port charging stations. [BSB coverage]

• 2023-08-15 2024 budget and land-acquisition match. Bloomington Transit’s board adopts a $26,607,394 2024 budget on a 5–0 vote, including LIT-funded items of $2,494,746 for land acquisition and $600,000 for architecture and engineering work tied to the expanded fleet and Green Line planning. [BSB coverage] [copy of board packet]

• 2023-08-09 Countywide operating authority. Bloomington city council changes local law to allow Bloomington Transit to operate anywhere in Monroe County, rejecting Area 10 Agency on Aging’s narrower urban-area approach, while Connell says BT does not intend to replace Rural Transit’s rural-to-urban and urban-to-rural trips. [BSB coverage] [copy of ordinance] [copy of Area 10 resolution] [copy of email]

• 2023-04-18 Four more electric buses. Bloomington Transit’s board approves ordering four more Gillig battery-electric buses for $4.5 million, bringing the total number of electric buses on order to 16 and continuing the plan to convert the 40-bus fixed-route fleet to battery electric by 2050. [BSB coverage]

• 2023-01-17 Strategic plan. Bloomington Transit’s board unanimously adopts a Foursquare ITP strategic plan and approves a $7.9 million Gillig purchase order for eight battery-electric buses; the plan calls for removing barriers to countywide service, collaborating with IU Campus Bus, and modernizing or replacing the Grimes Lane facility because it cannot accommodate a fully battery-electric fleet. [BSB coverage]

2022

• 2022-12-20 Five-year LIT agreement. Bloomington Transit’s board approves an interlocal agreement to receive at least $3.8 million per year for five years from Bloomington’s local income tax increase, with funds aimed at an east-west crosstown express route, Sunday service, microtransit, weekday frequency increases, and fare subsidies. [BSB coverage]

• 2022-08-23 Electric-fleet commitment and 2023 budget. Bloomington Transit’s board adopts a $35,039,251 budget and a battery-electric fleet policy with goals of buying only lower-emission or electric buses, reaching 60% battery-electric by 2030, and reaching 100% battery-electric by 2050; the budget also includes $250,000 for facility-expansion and land-acquisition services. [BSB coverage] [copy of board packet]

• 2022-05-17 Strategic-plan contract and electric-bus grant. Bloomington Transit’s board approves a $100,000 Foursquare ITP strategic-plan contract and an FTA Section 5339(c) application for eight battery-electric buses with a $7,040,000 federal share and $1,760,000 local share, while BT is 14 drivers short and delays its Uber/Lyft late-night microtransit rollout. [BSB coverage]

• 2022-05-04 Economic development LIT enacted. Bloomington city council votes 9–0 to enact a 0.69-point economic development local income tax increase, effective Oct. 1, raising the countywide income tax rate to 2.035% and generating about $14.5 million annually for Bloomington under population-based distribution. [BSB coverage]

• 2022-04-19 Uber/Lyft pilot and transit tax package. Bloomington Transit’s board votes unanimously to launch a late-night Uber/Lyft microtransit pilot, with riders paying $1 and BT subsidizing up to $19 per ride, and discusses Hamilton administration LIT proposals that include about $5 million in public-transportation projects and a 15-minute-frequency east-west route. [BSB coverage]

2021

• 2021-10-19 Connell starts as general manager. Bloomington Transit’s board approves a four-year AFSCME Local 613 contract after John Connell takes over from retiring general manager Lew May at the start of October; Connell identifies hiring enough drivers to make scheduled runs as his top priority. [BSB coverage]

• 2021-08-24 May’s final budget hearing. Lew May presents Bloomington Transit’s proposed 2022 budget to Bloomington city council in what BSB describes as his last budget presentation before retiring at the end of September after more than 20 years as general manager, with John Connell selected as the next general manager. [BSB coverage]

• 2021-07-20 Succession planning. Bloomington Transit’s preliminary 2022 budget comes as May’s 22-year tenure nears its end and Connell, then operations manager for the Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation, is selected by the board to succeed him. [BSB coverage]

• 2021-05-18 Fare collection resumes. Bloomington Transit’s board votes to resume $1 fixed-route fares and front-door boarding on July 1 after fare-free COVID operations, an early step in resetting revenue and operations during ridership recovery. [BSB coverage]

2020

• 2020-08-19 2021 budget and facility constraints. Lew May presents his 22nd annual Bloomington Transit budget to city council, with three more electric buses budgeted for 2021 and May warning that charging infrastructure, CNG possibilities, and future fleet expansion could require more space at Grimes Lane. [BSB coverage]

• 2020-04-07 COVID ridership collapse. BSB reports that Bloomington Transit’s 2019 fixed-route ridership rises 1.75% to 3.16 million rides, but March 2020 ridership is about 60% of normal and the fourth week of March has only 8,437 rides, about 10% of the same week in 2019, after IU cancels in-person instruction. [BSB coverage]

• 2020-01-21 Ridership rebound and route optimization. Lew May reports 3.16 million fixed-route rides in 2019, up 1.75% from 2018 and the first annual increase since 2014, while the board weighs optimized routes, evening-service changes, microtransit for low-ridership periods, and a possible route to Ivy Tech and Cook Medical that requires a city ordinance change. [BSB coverage]

2019

• 2019-12-02 Route optimization proposal. BSB describes Bloomington Transit’s route-optimization proposal as keeping annual service hours roughly flat, from 94,593 current hours to 94,836 proposed hours, while reducing evening service on several routes and prompting questions about city council action. [BSB coverage]

• 2019-08-13 Federal bus awards. Bloomington Transit wins $902,401 in competitive federal grants for three replacement buses—two BT Access paratransit vehicles and one fixed-route bus—with the fixed-route vehicle planned as a battery-electric bus and an appropriations ordinance totaling $1,128,000 because of the 20% local share. [BSB coverage]