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New management company, new ideas coming to Bloomington Transit

WFIU | By Austin Niehoff

Published September 25, 2026 at 1:30 PM EDT

A Bloomington Transit bus stops along a route in Bloomington. The system serves riders throughout the city and surrounding areas.

Keolis will take over Bloomington Transit’s day-to-day operations Oct. 1, bringing a new general manager and plans to address ridership and expand services.

Bloomington Transit will have a new management company next Thursday, when Keolis takes over day-to-day operations from RATP Dev.

The Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation's board approved the change in a 3-2 vote in September. The new contract runs through September 2029, with options for two one-year extensions.

The change follows a selection process that included proposals from three companies: RATP Dev, Keolis, and Transdev. A four-person selection committee reviewed the proposals and interviewed general manager candidates before unanimously recommending Keolis.

For board chair James McLary, the decision came down to what Keolis could bring to areas Bloomington Transit is looking to develop.

The company’s proposed general manager had experience with a type of service Bloomington Transit has been exploring.

“One of them was microtransit, and it’s very pro-microtransit,” McLary said.

Microtransit is an on-demand service that allows riders to request trips rather than relying on a traditional fixed route. McLary said the board sees the service as one of the biggest potential areas of growth for Bloomington Transit.

The management change also comes as the agency looks at how to bring more people onto its buses.

Bloomington Transit has contracts with four apartment complexes that primarily serve students. McLary said that while ridership at those locations has increased, that increase has not carried over to the rest of the system.

“All four of those have increased ridership, but our general population ridership is down, and that's very high on our priority list right now,” McLary said.

McLary said the board wants the new management team to help address that decline while looking at ways to expand services such as microtransit.

Keolis will also bring a new general manager to Bloomington Transit. Nick Standefer is expected to take over when the new contract begins.

Standefer has worked in several positions in the transit industry, and McLary said that background was important to the board as it considered the management change.

“He started out working as if he were a driver. And so, he's worked his way up through the ranks and has now got ten years of experience.,” McLary said.

Bloomington Transit is also considering new technology that could change how the agency evaluates its routes. McLary said Keolis has a tool that could use a phone application to collect feedback from riders about the system.

“It’s fairly costly, so we have to decide if we want to pay for it ourselves or if we want to get federal money to help pay for it,” said McLary.

Although the selection committee unanimously recommended Keolis, the full board was divided. McLary, Don Griffin, and Doug Horn voted in favor of the contract, while Nancy Obermeyer and Kent McDaniel voted against it. The decision marked a change in direction for Bloomington Transit after about five years under RATP Dev.