The city is moving forward with the purchase of a new bus that will eventually be added to the transit department’s fleet as it nears a route refresh in a couple of weeks.
On Tuesday, the Columbus Board of Public Works and Safety approved an intent to purchase a 29-foot Gillig low floor bus with a Cummins diesel engine for $772,353, although the final price is subject to change due to inflation and supply chain considerations.
Production of the bus will start within 23 to 26 months from receipt of purchase and likely won’t arrive until the end of 2027, city officials said.
The purchase of the bus will be paid for with both state and local funds. The state will pick up 80% of the cost via a Section 5339 grant which the city applied for through the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). The city is required to cover the remaining 20%.
The transit department has five of the same type of bus on the road at a given time, and the purchase of the new bus is an asset management measure, BethAnn Knots, compliance manager for transit, told board of works members.
A representative from Gillig, in a letter sent to the transit department on Feb. 27, noted “substantial tariffs on goods imported into the United States” by the Trump administration that could result in a future price adjustment.
When the city applied for the Section 5339 grant, the price of the bus was estimated at $690,000. Any final price would need approval by the board of works later on.
Transit of late has been working to make the new system completely ADA compliant — including access for customers who are colorblind.
The ColumBUS system on March 23 will begin a transition from routes to a color-coded loop system, relocate several transit stations and make changes to existing routes.
Rather than five fixed routes, there will be four and they will actually cover much more of the city, transit officials said. The colorful loops—Orange, Blue, Green and Purple—look to incorporate more areas and underutilized zones. A fifth route, called the Red Loop, will begin on April 6 and feature much-anticipated new stops in Walesboro and Taylorsville.
Transportation Director Matt Dudukovich said the Red Loop will be a point deviation route, which will switch off going to Walesboro and Taylorsville every other hour in line with shift-change schedules in the manufacturing hub in Walesboro.
The stops in Taylorsville will include Indiana Premium Outlets, Heritage Heights and Donner Park. The Walesboro stops will be Shadow Creek Farms, NTN, Sunright America, Enkei, Toyota, and REMC.
Passengers will be able to make reservations in advance if they want to stop at a specific location out of those available in the Red Loop.
Dudukovich praised transit employees Kathy Lee and Stacy Slater, who were able to figure out how to cover all the hotspots transit has serviced over the years with four fixed routes instead of five, at no additional cost, he said.
More information about the Red Loop will come as the April 6 date draws nearer via the transportation department’s social media pages.
The city will also start piloting Demand Response micro-transit this summer, which Mayor Mary Ferdon described as “our version of city-run rideshare, providing a fee-based point-to-point service to connect customers and communities.”
The ColumBUS system services 29 square miles in the city and transports around 240,000 people every year.
Citizens can preview the new bus loop maps by going to columbus.in.gov/columbus-transit/loops-preview/.
