Last March, the Bloomington Transit Board of Directors approved a resolution seeking over $35 million in federal funding to build a new administrative, operation and maintenance facility. The total budget between federal and local funds was set at nearly $44 million.
Bloomington Transit did not receive that $35 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant. A year later, the public transportation provider is still pursuing the project.
"It’s basically out of necessity at this point,” John Connell, Bloomington Transit general manager, said.
The current facility, located about a half-mile north of Switchyard Park on Grimes Lane, was built in the mid-1980s, Connell said. Indiana University owns the land, and its Campus Bus Service shares it with Bloomington Transit. There was more than enough room in the ‘80s; now, Connell said, there’s not enough space for both their operations.
The transit center on Walnut and Third Streets, though, will stay where it is.
He said a new facility is necessary as Bloomington Transit pursues its 10-year strategic plan, passed in 2023. Currently, the buses are stored in the open air under a canopy. But as the fleet transitions toward more battery-electric buses — part of the strategic plan — cold temperatures can be a problem.
Electric and hybrid vehicles’ fuel economy decreases more in cold conditions than gasoline automobiles, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Temperatures of 20 degrees or below can also lead to a 41% decrease in driving range in electric vehicles, according to the American Automobile Association.
The strategic plan also stated the current facility doesn’t have the space for charging stations of all battery-electric vehicles. Bloomington Transit aims to have a fully battery-electric fleet by 2050.
According to a September presentation to the Bloomington Residents Academy, Bloomington Transit has 40 buses in service, two of them battery-electric. At the time, Bloomington Transit said 16 additional electric buses would arrive in the rest of 2024 and 2025.
Connell said to meet passenger transportation demands, Bloomington Transit obtained grants to purchase two 60-foot articulated buses, which feature pivoting joints in the middle. While they likely won’t arrive until 2027, the current facility can’t accommodate those larger buses.
“There’s a variety of different projects we plan on pursuing over the next five to 10 years, and it is ultimately just going to require a bigger footprint to operate out of,” Connell said.
Connell said Bloomington Transit first looked to expand its current facility by buying adjacent parcels of land. But those parcels sit on a floodplain, limiting what they can build.
Now, the focus is on purchasing an entirely new piece of land. Connell said one potential site is currently under environmental review. They’re looking at sites in the urbanized area, including outside city limits. But it also has to be a centralized location, he said, for future expansion and to reduce “deadhead travel,” or running the route without passengers.
Bloomington Transit hopes to purchase a location by later this year. The facility will then be designed and go through construction and environmental prep, with a possible groundbreaking between April and June next year.
Connell said construction will be split into two phases: one for the new facility’s administrative and operational portion and one for its maintenance functions.
Connell said Bloomington Transit has over the years received enough Federal Transit Administration formula grants, which are based on population, to fund one phase of the project. The FTA funding Bloomington Transit didn’t receive last year is given on a discretionary basis. Connell said they will apply for it again this year, assuming the FTA accepts applications in the coming months.
