Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation

Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation (CityBus)

CityBus on the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, July 2006.
Founded	1971
Headquarters	1250 Canal Rd
Locale	Lafayette, IN
Service area	Lafayette, West Lafayette & Purdue University
Service type	Local bus and paratransit
Routes	24
Stops	About 1,000
Hubs	Riehle Plaza in Lafayette
Fleet	70 vehicles
Annual ridership	4,741,647 (2009)
Fuel type	Diesel
Chief executive	Martin Sennett, General Manager
Web site	GoCityBus

The Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation (GLPTC) is a municipal corporation founded in 1971 that provides bus services in Tippecanoe County, Indiana under the operating name of CityBus.

History

In 1970 the privately owned Greater Lafayette Bus Company abruptly ceased operations and the City of Lafayette hastily assumed operation of the bus routes.^{[citation needed]} Since the routes operated in West Lafayette in addition to Lafayette, a funding mechanism that allowed the use of tax revenues from both cities was needed. GLPTC was formed to operate city bus services in the two cities and select surrounding areas of Tippecanoe County. GLPTC receives funding from the federal government, the State of Indiana and property taxes levied in the service areas. In 1998 GLPTC began using the operating name CityBus.

Current operations

The corporation's budget for 2007 was $9 million, with approximately $1.9 million coming from farebox collections, pass sales, charters and other services. As of 2009 the CityBus fleet consists of 70 buses including paratransit buses, two trolley-replica buses and eleven hybrid diesel-electric buses. The majority of the fleet consists of vehicles manufactured by Gillig Corporation. In 2006 GLPTC was the second busiest bus system in Indiana with more than 4.35 million rider trips.^{[citation needed]}

CityBus has a partnership with Purdue University and Ivy Tech Community College that allows students, faculty and staff of these universities to ride free of cost.

Routes

CityBus operates 14 regular routes through Lafayette and West Lafayette, and an additional 8 routes within the Purdue University campus.

Regular routes

• 1A Market Square
• 1B Salisbury
• 2A Schuyler
• 2B Union
• 3 Lafayette Square
• 4A Tippecanoe Mall
• 4B Purdue West/Klondike
• 5 Happy Hollow/Northwestern
• 6A Fourth St.
• 6B S. 18th St.
• 7 State Road 26 E.
• 8 Klondike Express
• 9 Ready2Go
• 23 Wabash Trolley Line

Campus loops

• 12 Gold Loop
• 13 Silver Loop
• 14 Black Loop (Sat/Sun Nights)
• 15 Tower Acres
• 16 Bronze Loop
• 17 Ross Ade
• 18 NightRider (Fri/Sat Nights)
• 19 South Campus
• 20 AvTech

Technological Progress

An app “PurdueBus” has been recently launched which provides a comprehensive system for the city bus system of the West Lafayette/Lafayette area. Once the app is running it sends real time data to the phone using satellite imagery. You can search for any bus loops running on that day and it will provide you details of all the buses running on that sector and their current positions. You can also enter the code of any bus stop, or the landmark of the stop and the app tells you the buses due on the stop and there estimated time of arrival on the stop.

There is a “Currently by me” option, which shows your position on the map and all the bus stops around you. If you click on any of those, it again shows you the estimated time of arrival of all the buses (Campus loops and Lafayette Loops) on that stop. There is an option for your “Favorite stops” through which your access to the details of those particular stops is easier. There is a “Follow me” option which uses you phones GPS and will update your position as you move around that area.

The app is a beta testing version and it’s free of charge.

References

• "About CityBus". CityBus of Greater Lafayette, Indiana. Retrieved 2009-10-26.

External links

• CityBus website