Estimated Costs Of First Phase Of Red Line Already Up 60%!

Advance Indiana took a look back at the August 2015 budget presentation IndyGo made to the Indianapolis City-County Council for its 2016 budget. Imagine our surprise when we saw the original amount IndyGo's leadership told council members the first phase of the Red Line from Broad Ripple to the University of Indianapolis would cost to construct. How about $60 million? Yep, that's what IndyGo planned to spend building that 13.4 mile stretch of the 35-mile planned bus rapid transit line.

At that time, IndyGo said it anticipated receiving a $48 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration. It planned to match that with $12 million in local match money, which included tapping Gov. Mike Pence's Regional Cities grant money. Of course, IndyGo got passed over for the state grant money. By the start of this fiscal year, IndyGo announced it had been awarded a $75 million grant to put towards the $96 million projected cost of that same leg of the Red Line it earlier projected would cost just $60 million, or a cost difference of about 60%.

So IndyGo just 8 months ago was telling City-County Council members it could build the first phase of the Red Line for about $4.5 million per mile. It also told council members it would only cost about $6 million annually in additional operating costs once the first phase of the Red Line becomes operational in 2018. The construction cost  has now jumped to more than $7 million per mile. Experts say bus rapid transit lines on average range in cost from $15 to $25 million per mile.

IndyGo says it plans to build the Red Line regardless of whether a proposed quarter percent income tax increase is approved by Indianapolis voters this November. It claims the income tax revenues are not needed to finance the capital costs for building all of the planned BRT lines, which would include a total of three over the next five years. That income tax increase would generate $56 million in new revenues annually, more than double what IndyGo currently collects from its local property tax levy, which includes a maximum $16 million special levy, up from $10 million last year. IndyGo now says its total operating budget will grow from $70 million a year to $108 million a year once with the additional costs of operating a BRT. Suffice it to say, IndyGo isn't very good at estimating costs.

When IndyGo first announced plans to build its new downtown transit center on Washington Street across the street from the City-County Building, which is aptly being named in honor of the late U.S. Rep. Julia Carson, a career politician who mastered the craft of pilfering public tax dollars, it estimated total construction costs at $20 million. Costs for the new transit center have already ballooned nearly 33% to $26.5 million. That difference has to be made up with local dollars since the federal grant only covered $13.5 million of the costs. The transit center was originally supposed to open this year, but little progress seems to be taking place at the site. When it comes online, IndyGo estimates it will cost another $700,000 in its budget annually to operate. Bus line changes to accommodate the new transit center are expected to add $1.3 million in annual operating costs. IndyGo riders, incidentally, only chip in a little more than $11 million in fares to cover IndyGo's annual operating budget, less than 17% of the annual cost to operate the bus system.