The private bus era whole, then the public corporation, with riders and fares as the record states them

1923–2025 · BOUNDARY SIZE, FROM TRANSPO'S OWN RECORD AND THE FLEET SUCCESSION

The bus was a streetcar company's child first: CERA Bulletin 132's contents give the era its chapter heads — "1923 — The Motor Bus Appears," "More Buses & Receivership." ChicagoRailFan's facilities record dates the machinery: in 1923 a Northern Indiana subsidiary, the Railway Transit Line, began operating buses from a garage at Riverside and Francis Streets; in 1928 the competing South Bend Motor Bus Company opened on South Main Street, soon fell under Northern Indiana's control, and in 1933 all bus operations were consolidated into its facility; the competing independents were bought up and thereafter, as the Bulletin's summary puts it, "buses ran on schedules which complemented the electric cars." The receivership ended by reorganization in 1940 — the year of the last streetcar conversion, 15 June 1940 — and the bus property passed to Northern Indiana Transit, with interurban buses running to Elkhart, Goshen and Niles until the remaining interurban routes were sold to Indiana Motor Bus in 1960 (ChicagoRailFan). The city operation's second private master was national: the National City Lines roster carries Northern Indiana Transit under NCL ownership 1956 to 1968, matching CERA 132's summary that operations continued "until 1956 when the company was sold to outside interests." CPTDB's fleet roster shows the inheritance in metal — TRANSPO's first buses were 1946–1951 GMC coaches still carrying Northern Indiana Transit fleet numbers.

The public corporation, with its founding conflict printed whole: CPTDB, citing TRANSPO's own history, states "In 1968, TRANSPO was formed to continue operations from the privately operated Northern Indiana Transit," and the corporation's own account, given to its council, likewise fixes municipal ownership from 1968 — the date the South Bend build follows and the date that governs here; the corporation's full name is the South Bend Public Transportation Corporation, and one of its first directors, Emil "Lucky" Reznik, gives the modern headquarters its name. Against it, Wikipedia's Transportation in South Bend article states that in 1969, "eager for a new bus system, the City of South Bend purchased a bus for the new private transit startup, South Bend Transportation Corporation," nicknamed TRANSPO after a local contest. 1968 public formation against 1969 private startup: the corporation's own record is preferred and the conflict is not normalized away. (One printed error is flagged so it cannot propagate: a rail-history page states that bus service began on 16 June 1940 "by Transpo" — an anachronism of twenty-eight years; the 1940 operator was Northern Indiana Transit.)

Riders and fares, as the record states them: the fare has been a dollar for a generation — CPTDB's fare table (as of October 2014) reads cash $1.00, reduced fare $0.50, day pass $3.00, two-week pass $18.00, 31-day student pass $30.00, 31-day adult pass $35.00, and TRANSPO's own later record confirms the base fare unmoved: its most recent increase took effect 5 April 2010, and in the corporation's 2025 budget testimony to the South Bend Common Council (26 September 2024) General Manager Amy Hill still stated a $1 fixed-route fare and $2 paratransit fare, against a cost of roughly $8 per fixed-route ride and $12 per paratransit ride, with 106 employees, 50 fixed-route buses and 20 paratransit vans, the fixed fleet reaching 100 percent compressed natural gas in 2024. Ridership in the same testimony stood at 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels, with the K-12 Summer Travel Program setting a record 37,000 rides in June–August 2024; the latest full count in the open record is 1,279,200 riders in 2025, about 4,500 per weekday in the fourth quarter (APTA Transit Ridership Report, Q4 2025, as carried in the Transpo article). None of these buses, in any of these years, ran into Clay or Harris township: the private era's nearest approach is the same University Park Mall fringe the transit test already documents.