The partial federal government shutdown during a Washington, D.C., budget battle could affect Northwest Indiana bus services if it goes on much longer, the head of the region’s transportation planning agency said Thursday.
Ty Warner, executive director of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, told commission members that the Federal Transit Administration, which subsidizes several Northwest Indiana bus services through NIRPC, has been closed during the shutdown.
Bus purchases have been delayed, Warner said, but so far there has been no effect on daily service.
NIRPC channels federal support to bus services in East Chicago, LaPorte, Valparaiso, and North Township, and to those run by Opportunity Enterprises, Porter County Community Services, and South Lake County Community Services.
The Gary bus system gets its own federal funding.
Warner added that most of NIRPC’s work concerns federal highway funding for road and street projects, and that comes from a fund not affected by the shutdown.
Also Thursday, NIRPC members voted support for “the concept of” a proposed state law that would let cities issue $200 fines to railroad companies that fail to give advance warning when a train will block a crossing.
House Bill 1090 was introduced by state Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. has contended that trains have sat across roads more often since last year, when the Indiana Supreme Court overruled a law that allowed local governments to issue fines when trains blocked crossings.
A NIRPC task force on the issue has been looking for a potential solution at the federal level, primarily the Surface Transportation Board, which has some regulatory oversight over railroads.
The commission also approved a 2019 budget of $3.2 million, 16 percent less than last year’s.
Spending on salaries is down, Warner said, because some longer-term, higher-paid employees retired last year.
Also, funding for contractual services decreased because grants for some programs have ended.
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