INDIANAPOLIS – IndyGo is hosting a series of town hall meetings starting on Tuesday.

The agency said the meetings are designed to be informative but also allow a chance for riders to share their feedback to make sure community needs align with IndyGo’s future plans.

IndyGo kicked off its “Future Service Plan” in 2016, which aims to switch the bus network from a “hub spoke model” to a grid-based system across the Circle City.

“We really wanted to move more to a ‘grid system’ that would better connect the different sides and the ends of the city and just travel from one side of the city to the other,” Carrie Black with IndyGo said. “So that was the reasoning for just wanting to make the transition and create a Future Service Transit Plan.”

The agency said the grid-based system has helped create shorter wait times, faster service, and more crosstown options. Routes now also operate seven days a week, with every weekday operating 21 hours a day.

“A lot of progress has been made since 2016, but there’s still more to do,” Black said. “Unfortunately, the pandemic hit. Once the pandemic hit, that affected us in a number of ways.”

IndyGo leaders said ridership took a dip after the pandemic.

“So we decided to press pause on our plans,” Black said. “Now that the pandemic is over, and things are trending upward, we’re pressing play again and just revisiting the plans that we had in place and looking at what makes sense moving forward.”

This is why the agency is hosting four open house meetings in the next several days. Leaders want to provide updated information to the public, as well as get feedback from the community.

“Anybody who rides IndyGo, who has a family member or friend who rides IndyGo, or who is interested in riding IndyGo is encouraged to attend one of these four community meetings to learn a little bit more about what we’re doing and what it is we can do to make the service the very best it can be for the city of Indianapolis and for all of Marion County,” Black said.

This new Future Service Plan would become the long-range plan for the next 5 years if approved by the agency’s Board of Directors. That meeting takes place in November.

Meanwhile, IndyGo will host the following public meetings over the next several days:

  • Tuesday, Oct. 11, 5:30 p.m. – Community Justice Center, 675 Justice Way

              (Accessible by bus via Route 14 or 26)

  • Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2 – 5 p.m. – Julia M. Carson Transit Center, 201 E. Washington St.

(Accessible by most bus routes)

  • Thursday, Oct. 13, 5:30 p.m. – P30, 3039 N. Post Rd.

            (Accessible by bus via Route 87)