Gary Transit history

[andrethebusman]

Was reading the Gary PTC article on Wikipedia today. It is a bit incorrect as to what occurred in the 1970's. When Gary was still running to points outside the city, that service was under "Gary Intercity Lines", while in-city was "Gary Transit". gary Intercity also had charter rights, which Transit did not. This is a very important distinction. Circa 1972, all services outside the city of Gary were dropped, but Gary Intercity did NOT disappear, it just became a charter-only company. When Gary PTC started in 1975, they took over Gary Transit, but Gary Intercity was hired as the contract management company. Eventually the PTC bought all the stock of Gary Intercity, which was then held in the name of the CEO of PTC, which meant that PTC was in reality but not technically contracting with itself to run its system. This arrangement continued at least into the 1990's, and Gary intercity was also the original operator of Hammond Transit System, and the little-known "North Township Transit System", a short-lived Whiting to Munster via Indianapolis Blvd service circa 1975-76. Gary Intercity continued to also operate charters into the 1980's, when the last non-PTC buses were retired.

[Busjack]

If you want to correct Wikipedia, do it there. Basically, though, it isn't worth the effort

However, I do remember riding a Gary charter while it was still a private company. C&CD was also a private company then, but apparently didn't want the trip, but I also rode a C&CD charter where the organization hiring the bus had the driver for about a week.

[Busjack]

... When Gary was still running to points outside the city, that service was under "Gary Intercity Lines", while in-city was "Gary Transit"....

Interestingly, "Gary Railways" remained in the telephone book long after there wasn't any railway (at least through the 1960s).

Even more interesting, their history is on the schedules, such as this one.

.... Eventually the PTC bought all the stock of Gary Intercity, which was then held in the name of the CEO of PTC, which meant that PTC was in reality but not technically contracting with itself to run its system. This arrangement continued at least into the 1990's, and Gary intercity was also the original operator of Hammond Transit System, and the little-known "North Township Transit System", a short-lived Whiting to Munster via Indianapolis Blvd service circa 1975-76. ...

More strangely, as part of the Regional Bus Authority mess, besides GPTC not wanting to merge with the Regional Bus Authority, it also submitted a proposal to be the contract operator of the RBA easygo, which it didn't. Then, when the RBA closed shop, GPTC again offered to take over Hammond Transit, but then the obvious issue was that nobody was willing to pay them to do it.

Since the RBA is out of business, there is the question who, if anyone, is paying for the regional routes (such as 12).

As usual, I recommend the NWI Times search for "regional bus."

[ctrabs74]

Interestingly, "Gary Railways" remained in the telephone book long after there wasn't any railway (at least through the 1960s).

Even more interesting, their history is on the schedules, such as this one.

More strangely, as part of the Regional Bus Authority mess, besides GPTC not wanting to merge with the Regional Bus Authority, it also submitted a proposal to be the contract operator of the RBA easygo, which it didn't. Then, when the RBA closed shop, GPTC again offered to take over Hammond Transit, but then the obvious issue was that nobody was willing to pay them to do it.

Since the RBA is out of business, there is the question who, if anyone, is paying for the regional routes (such as 12).

As usual, I recommend the NWI Times search for "regional bus."

What I don't understand about the entire Hammond bus fiasco is why the NICTD didn't take more of a role in ensuring bus service in Hammond. Yes, I know they were chartered to operate the South Shore Line railroad, but shouldn't someone at least investigated whether state law could have been amended to give NICTD jurisdiction over all (non Gary PTC) public transit within their service district?

[Busjack]

What I don't understand about the entire Hammond bus fiasco is why the NICTD didn't take more of a role in ensuring bus service in Hammond. Yes, I know they were chartered to operate the South Shore Line railroad, but shouldn't someone at least investigated whether state law could have been amended to give NICTD jurisdiction over all (non Gary PTC) public transit within their service district?

The issue still comes down to who was going to pay for it, which was nobody.

Somehow, in this connection people here seem to believe that any agency (Pace, GPTC or NICTD) is going to provide service without being reimbursed.

In the meantime, the NICTD minutes reflect that state politicians want to mess with them for political reasons, sort of similar to the nonproposal of merging RTA and CMAP.

[andrethebusman]

Once Calumet District shut down the local lines in 1972 (within weeks of Gary Transit pulling back to within Gary's borders, by the way), East Chicago and Hammond each went their own way. East Chicago set up their free bus system, operated out of the old city incinerator at Cline and Gary, by the way, and it has been a political operation ever since. At times it was a real disaster, such as when it was reduced to unmarked 16-passenger vans, and even then not enough vans to run all the routes at the same time, to the current situation of rather new Gilligs. They refused to have anything to do with RBA as RBA wanted them to charge fares. EC sees this as a public utility basically for their residents, and if nobody else knows about it or uses it, that is just fine.

Hammond was a bit different. Hammond did not want to be in the operating business, so they contracted it out from day 1. Originally Gary Intercity Lines ran it with fishbowls and later RTS's. When this became too expensive, they brought in Hammond Yellow Coach with school buses. When Hammond Yellow got put out of business by the state for running junk, they turned to ATC, which initially used a wild assortment of fishbowls and AM Generals from Phoenix and Denver, then 10 rather old RTS's from Providence RI. When that contract ran out, they went to First Transit (I think) who brought in a bunch of small Optimas. Later, First changed to the big cutaways that lasted until the end. Most of the cutaways (at least 509-512, 514-515) are now used by First at the University of Chicago by the way.

As far as I can tell, the Gary "suburban" routes are considered part of the Gary city system and subsidized by the city of Gary as a convenience and necessity for their residents. Considering that the farebox recovery for the "local" routes is likely in the single digit range, these suburban routes probably have the best revenue!