Last Thursday, I finally had the opportunity to ride the IndyGo Green Line bus to the airport. I had a late afternoon flight, and I worked a half a day downtown before heading out. I bought my $7 ticket at the IndyGo store at 34 N Delaware Street and headed west on Market.
The first thing I noticed was the location of sign. I approached the stop from the south along Pennsylvania Street, and wasn’t sure where the stop was actually located. I turned the corner onto Ohio, and I still wasn’t sure, until I turned around and saw the sign pictured below. This is probably an issue with every IndyGo stop, but it seems more pronounced with a route that is dedicated to both tourists and potentially uninitiated locals. Placing a sign on each side of the pole could help alleviate some needless wandering.
As far as reliability goes, the bus runs every 20 minutes, which is not great, but certainly better than the 30-minute interval which is common in much of the rest of the network. I missed my first bus by one minute, but fortunately the next one showed up right on time.  This is may be an obvious point, but it is amazing how much shorter 20 minutes feels compared to 30 minutes.  That extra 10 minutes seems to be where it becomes natural for a person to wonder if they are wasting a good chunk of the day.
The ridership count on my trip totaled 6 passengers. I’m not sure what a good average count is for the route, but 6 seems to be on the low side. Regardless, this is a good service to have, and one that seems to be a no-brainer for visitors on a budget. The other options include taxi, car rental, or the multiple stop IndyGo Bus number 8. I will take this trip again if I have the chance.
I am glad we have the green line and I would ride it, but the Washinton Street route #8 works better for me. Last time it took me an hour door to door to get home in Irvington for $1.75. Figured it would be same amount of time or longer to take the green line downtown and then transfer to the #8 to go further east ($8.75), or to wait for someone to pick me up (free-$5 donation for gas), or to retrieve my car from the long term lot ($21-56).
Good point. I would strongly look into the #8 if I lived in Irvington.
At times I’ve been on the Green Line with 0 or 1 other passenger, depending on the time of day. It’s great if your point of origin/destination is downtown, but yes, often the #8 is better depending on where you’re going. You can also pay your fare onboard with cash or credit (!).
Does anyone else feel that, for being such a big city, our public transportation is an absolute joke?
Well, that’s true for the most part, but it is all about the funding. IndyGo is doing the best they can with what they have to deal with, for the most part. It’s just too bad that the city is beholden to a bunch of rural and suburban legislators at the state level that control the purse strings.
Good article. When I lived in Indy I took the Green Line regularly to the airport. Often it has less than 5 riders, but it is a good start. Kevin your comments on funding are a big part of why Indy’s public transportation is so bad… hope the light rail and train system gets passed by the legislatr one day.