The Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation (GLPTC) is a

municipal corporation A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally owne ...

founded in 1971 that provides

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

services in

Tippecanoe County, Indiana Tippecanoe County is located in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Indiana about 22 miles east of the Illinois state line and less than 50 miles from the Chicago and the Indianapolis metro areas. As of the 2010 census, the population ...

under the operating name of CityBus. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .

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. Since the routes operated in

West Lafayette West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister c ...

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 Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

and property taxes levied in the service areas. In 1998 GLPTC began using the operating name CityBus.

Current operations

As with most transit agencies, CityBus saw a decrease in ridership in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a small increase was observed in 2021. The corporation's revenue for 2021 was $14.03 million, with approximately $2.8 million coming from

farebox A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various pa ...

collections, pass sales, charters and other services. As of August 2022, the CityBus fleet consists of 72 buses: 7

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

buses, 41

CNG Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...

buses, 20 hybrid diesel-electric buses, and 4 diesel buses. In 2021 CityBus (GLPTC) was the second busiest bus system in Indiana with more than 2.4 million rider trips. CityBus has a partnership with

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

and

Ivy Tech Community College Ivy Tech Community College (Ivy Tech) is a public community college system in the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the state's public community college system and it has more than 40 locations. It is also the state's largest public postsecondary in ...

that allows students, faculty and staff of these universities to ride free of cost. CityBus is currently undergoing a replacement plan that will eventually replace all of their Diesel and Hybrid buses with CNG buses. As of August 2020, CityBus surpassed their goal of having 50% of their fleet use CNG fuel by 2025.

Routes

CityBus operates 15 regular routes through Lafayette and West Lafayette, 3 contracted routes for apartment complexes, and an additional 4 routes within the

campus.

Current Fleet

CityBus operates a fleet of transit and para-transit buses. A slight majority of its transit buses are

New Flyer New Flyer is a Canadian multinational Bus manufacturing, bus manufacturer, specializing in the production of transit buses. New Flyer is owned by the NFI Group, a holding company for several bus manufacturers. New Flyer has several manufacturing ...

s, but there are also a number of

Gillig Low Floor The Gillig Low Floor (originally named Gillig H2000LF and also nicknamed Gillig Advantage) is a transit bus manufactured by the Gillig Corporation. The second low-floor bus introduced in the United States (after the New Flyer LF), the Low Floor ...

Gillig BRT The Gillig Low Floor (originally named Gillig H2000LF and also nicknamed Gillig Advantage) is a transit bus manufactured by the Gillig Corporation. The second low-floor bus introduced in the United States (after the New Flyer LF), the Low Floor ...

buses. The para-transit buses, used for their "ACCESS" system, are mostly mini-buses based on the

Ford E-Series The Ford E-Series (also known as the Ford Econoline or Ford Club Wagon) is a range of full-size vans manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company. Introduced for model year 1961 as the replacement for the Ford F-Series panel van, the E-Se ...

chassis. In 2015, CityBus, along with other transportation providers, signed a 5-year contract with New Flyer to provide up to 159 new buses (total) for the providers. CityBus ordered buses 5001–5009, 6001–6006, and 7001-7006 through the consortium, for a total of 21 buses, fulfilling their portion of the contract.

Retired Fleet

These buses have been retired from the CityBus fleet. Retired vehicles are typically auctioned off to the public, while some are used for spare parts prior to sale.

References

External links

Website
{{Indiana public transit Bus transportation in Indiana Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette, Indiana Transportation in Tippecanoe County, Indiana Transit authorities with natural gas buses 1971 establishments in Indiana