INDIANAPOLIS — The Red Line is experiencing some growing pains in it’s week of service.
Many first time riders of the brand new rapid transit bus system reported wait times of over an hour on Labor Day.
“I’m glad it was free when we were waiting, I was like, I’m calling Uber,” said Lynda Ford to WISH-TV.
Ford said they had gotten on a Red Line bus going north at 46th street and made it just fine to 66th street, but that’s where passenger were asked to get off the bus.
“We got off at about 4 p.m,” Ford said. “Another bus came at about 4:45. We got on and before we left, we had to get off again. We waited for an hour.”
Ford and friends rode the third bus south to 54th Street and said they were relieved to reach their destination following a nearly two-hour journey. Driving from 46th to 66th Street along College Avenue, then back down to 54th Street, would have taken them just 15 minutes.
IndyGo said the passengers were asked to get off at 66th street because to the driver of that bus Ford and her friends were riding on was due for a shift change.
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Adding to the issues, monitors installed at stations to display real-time bus locations were not working Monday. IndyGo directed riders to track Red Line buses using “MyStop,” a mobile app. The app displayed wait times exceeding two hours Monday afternoon for some Red Line buses.
Lauren Day, a spokesperson for IndyGo, blamed Monday delays on holiday staffing.
“We have fewer buses on the road than we will during weekday service,” she said. “That will help with bus spacing and passenger loads. Dispatch and drivers are working hard to smooth out the frequency to reach the 15-20 minute arrivals at each station. By and large, it’s working well and we’re seeing full buses.”
In the last week, there have also been three crashes between Red Line busses and cars, all of them concentrated along Capitol Avenue downtown.
(PHOTO: WISH-TV)
