Roughly 200 students in grades 10 through 12 will be part of the first cohort to use IndyGo as their transportation provider, as opposed to traditional yellow bus service. That’s a third of the number the district approved for the transition in April.
IPS cut back on the number of IndyGo riders to accommodate capacity limits on some routes and stops during drop-off and pick-up times. The district also cited a shortage of IndyGo bus drivers.
“IPS and IndyGo are committed to ensuring that the students who make the initial transition from IPS yellow buses to the IndyGo public transit system have a positive experience and are able to safely and successfully access the IndyGo network beginning August 2(the first day of school) and throughout the 2021-22 school year,” Zach Mulholland, executive director of operations at IPS, said in a statement.
The district’s original criteria for choosing students who would transition to IndyGo — including having no bus transfers and a total travel time of less than 50 minutes — are still the same. IPS spokesperson Alpha Garrett said the district worked with IndyGo to determine the final list of students for the first cohort, and those students have been notified.
Other students can also opt in to using IndyGo, meaning they would give up yellow bus service. Students who are part of the first cohort to transition will have unlimited access to IndyGo’s bus network at no direct cost to them or their families through the summer of 2022.
The goal is to increase the number of high school students assigned to IndyGo each year.
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
