route bus stops at valparaiso university . slogan take the bus no fuss parent city of valparaiso founded 2007 headquarters 166 lincolnway 1 locale valparaiso indiana service area valparaiso dune park . service type deviated fixed route 2 routes 6 hubs 1 fleet 5 2 annual ridership 179 378 2013 3 fuel type gasoline 2 operator ride right beginning september 2010 2 chief executive taylor wegrzyn transit manager 2 website v line the v line is the local bus operation in valparaiso indiana . service began on october 1 2007 making valparaiso one of the smallest cities in the united states to have its own independent public transit system . 4 5 contents 1 operations 2 history of service changes 3 routes 4 ridership statistics 4.1 2008 4.2 2009 4.3 2010 4.4 2011 5 references 6 external links operations edit the v line was originally operated by mcdonald transit a national transit operator primarily serving universities . ride right took over the operations on fall 2010 . in valparaiso the bus mostly serves the elderly and students of valparaiso university . commuters within the city also use it but it is secondary to personal vehicles as a mode of transit . 6 the system consists of 104 stops along 4 lines . the green line yellow line red line and brown line operate in the city of valparaiso on weekdays and weekends . these three lines run as flexible fixed routes meaning they have standard scheduled stops which can be altered en route to meet the needs of those who can not otherwise reach the bus . 6 the fourth line the orange line operates express between valparaiso university s student center and the dune park south shore rail on fridays sundays when valparaiso university is in session and fridays saturdays during the summer . 7 the line does not operate when nictd conducts track and catenary repairs . on may 18 2009 v line introduced a shuttle service that runs from dune park station to valparaiso s village station on weekdays during evenings as a way to supplement chicago dash bus service . however that service was eliminated on february 1 2010 due to low ridership . 8 the system was started using a 615 000 federal grant . until early 2008 the system used rented buses 16 24 person capacity minibuses . in jan. 2008 new buses of similar capacity were delivered . 9 a standard one way fare costs 1.00 with one free transfer . passengers are expressly forbidden from using the transfer on the same route . senior citizens students children 5 18 and disabled persons can ride for half . young children under age 4 and valparaiso university students ride for free . 10 history of service changes edit in august 2009 valparaiso officials announced a series of changes that went into effect at the end of the month . first and foremost v line gained a new red line route which began service august 28 2009 . it is essentially an alternate version of the orange line route the buses that would previously sit idle during the scheduling breaks now travel around the city overlapping with green line yellow line and brown line buses . 11 during sundays it serves as an alternative to yellow and green line routes which don t operate on the first days of the week . the red line route is added on experimental basis for three months if it does well it will be made permanent . 12 since then the red line has become a permanent route for fridays saturdays and sundays . it runs in a loop around the city before turning into the orange line route and running to the dune park nictd trains station . in addition to introducing the red line v line rearranged the schedules for the other routes . for orange line the fall spring friday and saturday service was truncated from 1 00 am to 10 20 pm and 10 00 pm respectively . as the result saturday and sunday schedules became identical . by contrast yellow and green line route schedules were extended running an hour later than before . brown line route was expanded adding service to ivy tech and the valparaiso walk shopping complex . 13 in december 2013 the brown line route expanded its hours . it now begins at 12pm . after south shore line adjusted its weekend schedule on november 22 2009 v line adjusted orange line and red line weekend schedules . orange line route s service hours shifted running between 9 15 am and 11 05 pm . the wait times at dune park station were shifted to allow the bus to connect to both eastbound and westbound trains something that the previous version of the schedule rarely allowed . red line s service hours were shifted and extended it now started at 8 15 am rather than 7 45 am and ended at 11 55 pm rather than 10 35 pm . the decrease in the number of weekend trains allowed valparaiso officials to increase red line s service frequencies during morning and evening hours . on december 3 2009 v line general manager ryan landers stated that system ridership was down for all lines . he also explained that while red line ridership was climbing it was still significantly below the numbers for other routes remaining in double digits . landers explained that he would like to keep the red line running for another six months if the ridership doesn t pick up significantly he will be forced to shut it down . finally he noted that while he would like to buy more vehicles in order to allow for shorter headways the system can t afford them as of this writing . 14 on may 15 2010 the v line summer schedule was altered . whereas before brown line route was shut down while orange line route continued operating at reduced hours this time around orange brown and red routes were completely shut down for the entire duration of the summer schedule . 15 in the spring of 2010 the city of valparaiso expressed its desire to consolidate operations of v line and chicago dash bringing both systems under the same operator by fall 2010 when the current contracts expire . 16 it was hoped that consolidation would save money . ultimately though the city decided to switch to a new contractor for v line and leave chicago dash as is . 17 the city is also considering revamping the current routes but no clear plans have been announced at this time . 18 in may 2011 the city of valparaiso considered altering the schedule the same way as the previous summer . however the feedback from the riders convinced it to merely cut the brown line route for the summer and leave orange line and red line routes as is . in addition the green line yellow line and red line routes were temporarily altered to make up for the gaps in service that resulted from the suspension of the brown line route . 19 in december 2013 the city of valparaiso began a route study of the v line bus service . the study will finish in spring 2014 . the results of the study will aid in determining what changes are needed to the bus service to provide the best service possible with the resources at hand . routes edit green line ivy tech to porter s vale to vale park rd. yellow line andover plaza to downtown to bullseye lake rd. brown line ivy tech to porter s vale to valparaiso marketplace to downtown orange line dune park station to valparaiso university red line bullseye lake road to downtown to vale park rd. purple line andover plaza to downtown to valparaiso university to strong bow center to andover plaza ridership statistics edit 2008 edit month total yellow line green line brown line orange line january n a n a n a n a n a february n a n a n a n a 377 march 20 3 133 1 116 1 136 638 243 april 21 4 085 1 207 1 178 1 405 295 may 22 3 585 1 350 1 288 769 178 june n a n a n a n a july n a n a n a n a august 23 4 819 1 843 2 039 734 203 september 24 6 512 1 738 1 543 2 744 487 october 25 7 023 2 045 1 875 2 527 576 november 26 5 822 1 745 1 567 1 941 569 december 26 5 389 1 615 1 727 1 858 189 2009 edit month total yellow line green line brown line orange line red line january 27 6 412 1 801 2 034 2 235 342 february 28 6 307 1 627 1 849 2 383 403 march 29 5 683 2 135 2 104 1 158 285 april 30 6 320 1 956 1 847 2 164 535 may 31 4 964 1 924 1 925 910 205 june 32 4 224 2 090 2 069 65 july 12 4 089 1 896 2 120 73 august 33 n a 1 919 2 119 n a n a n a september 33 5 570 1 850 1 985 1 421 261 53 october 14 5 885 app 2 000 app 2 000 1 372 350 44 november 14 5 030 app 1 900 app 1 900 857 309 56 december 34 4 640 1 656 1 865 859 211 49 2010 edit month total yellow line green line brown line orange line red line january 35 5 525 1 801 1 789 1 563 234 37 february 36 5 672 1 890 2 019 1 376 333 54 march 36 5 741 2 396 2 460 712 148 35 april 37 5 965 2 356 2 290 1 039 218 62 may 38 4 323 1 969 1 807 461 61 25 june n a n a n a july n a n a n a august 39 6 262 2 498 2 578 1 103 51 32 september 39 7 238 2 356 2 343 2 115 298 126 october 40 7 486 2 550 2 327 2 108 338 163 november n a n a n a n a n a n a december 41 6 770 2 621 2 332 1 483 186 148 2011 edit month total yellow line green line brown line orange line red line january 42 8 136 2 927 2 410 2 290 359 150 february 43 7 088 2 734 2 203 1 632 341 178 march 44 7 791 3 131 2 734 1 433 320 173 april 45 7 162 2 570 2 391 1 582 404 177 references edit http www.ci.valparaiso.in.us v line contactus.html a b c d e 2009 indiana public transit annual report pg 146 147 http www.in.gov indot files transit 2013publictransitreport.pdf v line welcome aboard http www.post trib.com news opinion 588372 edit.article a b 219.548.4352 phil wielandpwieland nwitimes.com . valpo buses gain ridership each day . nwitimes.com . retrieved 29 august 2016 . v line rider information routes http www.chicagodash.com news newsletter011510.pdf masstransitmag.com article v line ready to roll in valparaiso v line rider information fares http www.ci.valparaiso.in.us v line timetables redfriday.html a b 548 4352 phil wieland phil.wieland nwi.com 219 . v line buses to run later and on sundays . nwitimes.com . retrieved 29 august 2016 . summary of the most recent service updates a b c 548 4352 phil wieland phil.wieland nwi.com 219 . drop in student use hurts bus ridership . nwitimes.com . retrieved 29 august 2016 . the announcement on v line s official website bus lines may consolidate by james s. d. wolf jr bus line costs expected to go down by james d. wolf jr.