Two Southern Indiana organizations are teaming up to bolster transportation access for those in need across Clark and Floyd counties through a new iteration of a familiar program.

Community Foundation of Southern Indiana announced Wednesday it is making a $2.45 million commitment to Blue River Services to expand the Southern Indiana Transit System, providing on-demand transportation and targeted routes to connect residents to the workforce and other everyday needs.

CFSI called the investment one of the largest in its 35-year history.

President Linda Speed said her foundation received a total of $3.75 million late last year from Lilly Endowment Inc., and was directed to deploy it for important community projects and initiatives.

Over the last 10 years, she said, CFSI’s board has conducted surveys and assessments asking community members what their greatest needs and priorities are, and transportation has continually been one of the highest. The Lilly Endowment Inc. funding provided an opportunity to address those needs, she said, leading CFSI to allocate a portion to Blue River Services.

“If people don’t have reliable transportation to a job, for a medical appointment, to be able to get to the grocery, their quality of life is affected,” she said. “Providing affordable, reliable transportation for everybody builds up the whole community and lets everyone thrive.”

Starting Oct. 14, the transit system will begin providing both on-demand transportation and deviated routes, aiming to provide both fixed stops and flexibility to riders.

One-way trips within the SITS service area are expected to range from $2 to $4 depending on distance, according to CFSI. The expanded fleet of vehicles will also include accessible minibuses suitable for people with mobility aids.

The door-to-door on-demand service will allow riders to schedule transportation with dispatchers based on when and where they need to travel at a given time. This is ideal for workers with varying schedules, doctor’s appointments or people in rural areas who may use SITS like a rideshare service, Speed said.

Deviated routes, on the other hand, operate on an established schedule and route with limited adjustments. The routes might be useful for people already living near them, workers with consistent hours or people making recurring trips.

Roland Lemus, director of SITS, told the News and Tribune earlier this month the combination of both options seems to reach more people.

“There’s a lot of folks in the demographics where we serve that cannot go to a bus stop or walk there, and in this heat or in severe cold, it’s very important that they get transportation services,” Lemus said.

The expanded system has no eligibility requirements, meaning riders do not need to qualify through Medicare or Medicaid or meet a specific income level. Lemus noted those requirements can sometimes create a monopolization of public transportation that defeats its purpose and complicates its goals.

“We’re very selective on what we call a standing order,” he said. “We want to get people to work. We can do some of that... but once that percentage is met, we’re going to provide as much door-to-door demand response [as possible]; people calling in saying, ‘I need to go to Walmart. I need to go to physical therapy.’”

In addition to individuals, a lack of reliable transportation access can also affect families, Speed pointed out, as the loss of a job or medical appointment can have a domino effect. She said that is why the expanded service focuses on affordability and accessibility, with no restrictions.

“A lot of the folks that are probably going to use this service are our workforce-aged people who need reliable transportation to get to their job,” she said.

The next two years of the expanded program will serve as a pilot to demonstrate the long-term demand and value of public transportation. Speed said while CFSI does not yet know whether it will be able to continue funding the program itself beyond those two years, the hope is that Blue River Services will work with other community partners over that period of time to lay the foundation for its future.

“It’s not an easy thing to do, to provide affordable transportation. It’s certainly not inexpensive to do so,” she said. “The funding will get us started, and that will then, hopefully, bring other partners to the table that are interested in helping promote this.”

As they prepare to roll out vans in mid-October, Blue River Services is working to identify the routes most-needed in the community through a community survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/CST6X69. The survey asks for each user’s location, gender, employment status, and travel patterns, as well as barriers to public transportation and preferred service features they would like to see.

“The more we push it out there, the more funds that we get,” Speed said, “the better jobs and availability of services to be planning those routes so people can get the maximum benefit.”

© 2026 The Evening News and The Tribune (Jeffersonville, Ind.). Visit newsandtribune.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.