Public transportation, sometimes called mass transit, has become an issue of interest for Hamilton County. Advocates of the service are gearing up for the start of new bus routes in Marion County and hopes of providing service to our county.
It is interesting to look back at the history of transportation for the public locally.
Longtime residents like myself can well recall when two bus lines served commuters from Hamilton County to downtown Indianapolis. The ABC Coach Lines and the Sheridan Bus Company provided dependable transportation to Indy for years. ABC’s route from Anderson to Indianapolis came through Noblesville and then south on Allisonville Road.
There was a stop at the Diana Theatre Building on North 9th Street and at the Butler Oil Station at 116th and Allisonville, along with other stops along the way if someone was standing at the roadside.
The Sheridan bus came south from Sheridan to Westfield and on to Carmel and Home Place. It would also stop along the route for riders waiting at roadside.
Both bus lines ended their routes at the downtown Indianapolis bus terminal on Market Street a block west of Monument Circle. Hundreds of commuters rode these buses in the 1950s and 60s. By the 1970s, however, with two-car households and better roads, bus riding dropped off to the point that service was discontinued.
Before the bus service there was the interurban which was similar to what is called light rail today. These electric powered vehicles, similar to a streetcar, traveled on a main track through Hamilton County north to south from Atlanta, through Arcadia, Cicero and Noblesville where the main station was located in what is now the Rowland Printing Company at 9th and Clinton Streets.
From Noblesville the interurban took a diagonal southwest path to Carmel and then south to Home Place and into Indianapolis at Broad Ripple. The service was extremely popular from the beginning of the 20th century until the late 1930s when the public’s love affair with the automobile killed off ridership.
Now, we are looking at another effort to bring mass transit to the area. Voters in Washington and Clay Townships will likely be facing a referendum next year to decide whether they wish to increase their local income taxes to partially pay for a public bus travel.
This first phase of what supporters hope will be a more widespread service would bring rapid transit buses from Indy through the Carmel and Westfield areas as far north as Grand Park. Will it become a reality and, if it does, will it be successful this time? To make it succeed commuters would have to be facing high gasoline prices, scarce downtown parking or severe traffic congestion.
As the trite but true saying goes, only time will tell.