Red Line extension to 96th Street and Greenwood to start next week

IndyGo’s Red Line buses will now take passengers to 96th Street on the city’s north side and to Greenwood Park Mall on the south side.

IndyGo Spokeswoman Lauren Day said select electric buses on the Red Line route will take riders to the new destinations starting Oct. 27, fulfilling a central goal of the rapid-transit service. The extension part of a series of routine service updates scheduled for October.

“Now that we’ve had two months of service and our drivers are more used to it and we have a fleet of buses ready to go, we’re able to implement what that ultimate plan was,” Day said.

Screens inside the Red Line buses will tell passengers when they will depart for the new locations, Day said. Riders who wish to visit Greenwood will take the bus down south Madison Avenue, while riders traveling to 96th Street will move north on College Avenue. The Red Line’s main route runs 13 miles through the center of Indianapolis.

IndyGo is also building in new layover time for drivers to ensure there is enough distance between the rapid-transit buses. Drivers will be able to take up to an additional five minutes of adjustment time when starting or ending a route.

“If they’re ahead of schedule, they’ll wait for that whole five minutes,” Day explained. “If they’re running behind, they’ll just continue and won’t take that five-minute layover time.”

Day said the layover time won’t necessarily affect transit times or cause delays. Red Line buses are supposed to arrive at stations every 10 to 12 minutes on weekdays and every 15 to 17 minutes on weekends.

The Red Line is now free to ride until Nov. 10 due to delays in IndyGo’s new fare service, MyKey. Day said the IndyGo Board of Directors plans to announce updates to the service at their monthly meeting Thursday.