LAFAYETTE, IN — After CityBus announced it had suspended the Route 41 The Connector, a free route that offers riders easy access to Purdue University’s campus and downtown Lafayette, CityBus CEO Bryan Smith said the company’s shortage of available drivers is at “an emergency level.”
Presenting CityBus’ projected 2026 budget to the Lafayette City Council on Monday night, Smith said that rather than other routes being down randomly throughout the day to accommodate employee call-offs, the company decided to cut the Connector Route to provide more consistent service for other routes.
“As we add operators to our ranks, we have a class graduating, going through their CDL tests this week, and another class planned for Oct. 13,” Smith said. “The goal is to add (the Connector Route) back to service, but we needed to suspend it on an emergency basis so that we could maintain consistent service across the rest.”
Looking at a map of CityBus routes, Smith said the Connector Route was the most duplicated in stops out of all of the routes the public transportation authority offers. Because no fare is charged, Smith said the company will see no loss in revenue by suspending it.
A year ago, when Smith stood before the Lafayette City Council to offer the proposed 2025 budget, he said that year would be balanced, but a shortfall was coming in 2026. Standing again at the podium, Smith told council members that prediction held true.
The prediction came after CityBus lost its contract with Purdue as the university’s campus transportation provider. Purdue instead opted to award a $7.8 million contract to Chicago-based SP+ out of the eight proposals it received.
The Journal & Courier submitted a public records request on April 4 for the campus transit proposals submitted to Purdue. The request was acknowledged by Purdue’s Office of Legal Counsel on April 8 but has not been fulfilled as of Oct. 7.
In an email to Purdue graduate and undergraduate students on Sunday, Jessica Robertson, associate vice president of auxiliary services, said in light of CityBus’ decision to suspend the Connector Route, the university will adjust its campus transit services to add a new stop at MacArthur Drive and First Street, just one block east of the previous Connector Route stop near McCutcheon Hall.
The on-demand service for the stop, Robertson said, will also be available 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and 4 to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
“The Purdue Campus Transit app and webpage has been updated to reflect this change. We are working to assess additional changes to our services to mitigate the impact of CityBus’s decision,” Robertson said in the email. “A survey on campus transit is planned for release this week and your feedback is welcome. I hope you take the time to provide your feedback.”
The projected 2026 budget included an overall 4% decrease compared to the previous 2025 budget, dropping from $17,711,252 to $16,996,092.
Smith said CityBus managed to maintain its level of state funding for 2026, but raising money locally was “a non-starter.” Anticipating a reduction in service for 2026, Smith said the company planned to do “the best we can” given the 4% reduction in operational expenses.
Several areas saw sizeable cuts, such as in insurance and operator wages. But Smith said the contractual services and administrative line items’ 111.1% increase, up $1,038,872 from 2025’s $492,198, was because of a need to plan for the future.
“Given the challenges we had with our budget, they don’t end in 2026,” Smith said. “If you look, as you predict, going out further all the way through 2028, for example, we have some funds to get through (local income tax) and those end in 2028. Rather than chose to do small reductions every year, our goal is to do the reduction that we’ll need to do with this budget and then have a planning study help us determine where a level of service can be that we can sustain for at least five and hopefully longer years.”
After a brief pause, councilwoman Eileen Hession Weiss said she understands the situation Smith is in is difficult.
Acknowledging he didn’t want to become emotional, Smith said recent decisions have been tough.
“These are difficult choices, and ending a route …,” Smith said with a pause. “Part of my notice to Mayor Roswarski (about the suspension of the Connector Route) was an apology, because I don’t want to be doing this.”
The Lafayette City Council voted unanimously to approve the CityBus budget.
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. She can be reached via email at jellison@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette council OKs smaller budget for CityBus in 2026; CEO says more challenges ahead
Reporting by Jillian Ellison, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
