 | |
 TARC 2013 Gillig BRT | |
| Founded | 1974 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | 1000 W. Broadway Louisville, Kentucky 40203 |
| Locale | Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Service area | Louisville Metro and southern Indiana |
| Service type | Bus service |
| Routes | 30 (includes four express and oneBRT line) |
| Stops | 7,000+ |
| Hubs | 1 |
| Fleet | 227 |
| Daily ridership | 20,800 (weekdays, Q2 2025)[1] |
| Annual ridership | 7,054,700 (2024)[2] |
| Fuel type | ULSD and electricity |
| Chief executive | Ozzy Gibson |
| Website | www |
TheTransit Authority of River City (TARC) is the majorpublic transportation provider forLouisville, Kentucky and parts ofsouthern Indiana, including the suburbs ofClark County andFloyd County. TARC is publicly funded and absorbed private mass-transit companies in Louisville, the largest of which was the Louisville Transit Company. In 2024, the system had a ridership of 7,054,700 (about 20,800 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2025).
TARC began bus operations in 1974. In 2023, it operated a fleet of 227accessible buses which run year-round. TARC has a number of specialized routes, providing transportation to major local employers, educational institutions, and recreational events.
TARC was created in 1971 after 1970 legislation authorized city and county governments to operate mass-transit systems with local funding. At the time, public transit was provided in Louisville by the private Louisville Transit Company. The company had long operated mass-transit lines in the city, converting from electrictrolleys to diesel buses in the late 1940s and changing its name from theLouisville Railway to the Louisville Transit Company in 1947.[3]
Ridership (includes Louisville Transit Company before 1974):
Following a trend in cities across the United States, the company saw annual ridership decline from 84 million in 1920 to 14 million in 1970. Its ridership was no longer large enough to cover operating expenses, and in 1971 it posted its first loss. In 1972, the company announced that it would cease operations on September 1, 1974.[3]
The local government began subsidizing fares in July 1973, but this was not enough to make the Louisville Transit Company profitable. Bridge Transit Company (which provided mass transit between Louisville andJeffersonville) ceased operations at around the same time due to lack of revenue, setting the stage for a metropolitan area without any private mass-transit companies.[3]
Voters approved a controversial 1974 referendum, supported by MayorHarvey Sloane, which approved an increasedoccupational tax to fund mass transit.[4] Combined with a federal grant, this was enough for TARC to purchase the Louisville Transit Company, buy new buses, reduce fares, and create new service lines.[3] TARC bought up the area's remaining mass-transit companies: Blue Motor Coach Lines (which served outlying areas) in 1976, and the Daisy Line (connecting New Albany and Louisville) in 1983.[3]
In 1993, TARC experimented withwater-taxi service connecting theBelle of Louisville wharf and Towboat Annie's Restaurant in Jeffersonville.[5] During the 1990s and early 2000s, TARC advocated extensive funding to build and operatelight rail in the Louisville area; despite wide press coverage, the plans never bore fruit.[citation needed]
In February 1994, an audit committee headed byBruce Lunsford found that TARC had been mismanaging funds and was depleting its once-large trust fund with increasing expenses such as door-to-door service for the disabled and spending on personal services and fringe benefits for administrators which was higher than that of transit companies in similarly sized cities.[6] TARC's executive director resigned after the audit, and fares nearly doubled before the end of the year.[7] In August 2011, TARC's new $4.5 million, 17,700-square-foot Maintenance and Training Annex received a GoldLEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification.[8]
TARC began to purchase hybrid buses in 2004, and began purchasingultra-low-sulfur diesel buses by 2008; by late winter 2012–2013, the company added 16 ULSD buses. Eleven hybrids were added by midsummer 2013, bringing TARC's hybrid total to 32. The company added 21 ULSD buses that fall, and 12 more the following fall; some are equipped withWiFi. Thirteen more updated buses were due to arrive by late 2016, increasing the company's ULSD fleet to 95.Electric buses began operation in downtown Louisville in early 2015 and, according to theCourier Journal, share the 8th Street charging station with a trolley route.[full citation needed] There is another charging station in downtown Louisville, at 3rd and York Streets. The 30-passenger buses can operate for up to two hours on a charge and, like the old trolleys, are fare-free. On November 5, 2019, TARC observed its 45th anniversary; since 2016, the company has added 45 ULSD buses and one hybrid. On January 6, 2020, TARC introduced Kentucky's firstbus rapid transit line.[9]
TARC purchased and took delivery of 72 clean diesel buses, during FY 2022. TARC purchased 8 more electric buses that are expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of FY 2024. These 80 buses will replace 80 older buses that have been in service since the mid noughties.[citation needed]
TARC operates buses which serve the Louisville area. The company claims over 7,000 bus stops, although only about 200 have benches and rain shelters; the rest simply have a sign indicating that the location is a bus stop.[10] The stops are served by 29 weekday and weekend routes, and four express routes with weekday service only. The daily routes are named for the primary road on which they run. There is no more than hour between scheduled buses at any stop on the daily routes, and on weekdays the busiest routes have shorter waiting times. Most of the daily routes have existed under the same name and number for decades, although their routes have almost all been extended to the suburbs.[11]
TARC operatescirculators to hospitals,Downtown Louisville and art galleries. Since 1999, it has operated a shuttle service for theUniversity of Louisville's main campus. The company operates two routes shuttling workers toWorldport, the hub ofUnited Parcel Service and one of Louisville's largest employers.[12] TARC launched a "Ride to Safety" program in 2007, which allowsdomestic abuse victims to use its buses for transportation to a shelter.[13]
It has diesel-powered rubber-tired buses designed like early-20th-centurystreetcars in the downtown hotel and shopping districts and for shuttle service in other shopping and entertainment areas. Thetourist trolleys began operation in November 1987, and their role and fare have varied according to funding.[14]
TARC and its predecessor had provided shuttle access to theKentucky Derby andKentucky Oaks since the 1950s, but in 2008 new federal rules requiredChurchill Downs to negotiate with private companies for service. The shuttle operation transported tens of thousands of people each year and provided TARC with over $200,000 of annual revenue.[15] TARC provides service to other local events, includingThunder Over Louisville and theKentucky State Fair.[16]
It began a "Bikes on Board" program in 2001, and two-to-three-bicyclebike racks had been installed on all its full-size buses by 2004. In 2005, TARC reported that an average of 6,000 riders a month used the bike racks.[17]
Dixie Rapid is abus rapid transit line that runs fromDowntown Louisville toDixie Highway.[18] The line began operating on January 6, 2020, and is Kentucky's first bus rapid transit route. It has 37 stops and a dedicated fleet of 11 silver-and-blue buses. Service is every 15–30 minutes, 20 hours a day, seven days per week. The route was created as part of the $35 million New Dixie Highway project.[19]
On April 1, 2024, TARC launched a six-monthon-demand pilot program inNew Albany, Indiana.[20] A second service zone was launched inJeffersontown, Kentucky the following month.[21] Fares were $5.00 riders to travel anywhere in the On-Demand Zone, but only $2.00 to get to the nearest bus stop.
TARC purchased Louisville'sUnion Station for $2 million in 1977, the year after the former train station had ceased rail operations. The train yard was replaced with a large maintenance facility for TARC buses, and the former train station is now TARC's administrative headquarters.[3] In 2003, TARC significantly remodeled Union Station for the first time since it purchased the facility; the renovation cost $2.1 million.[22]
An eight-member board administers TARC, which had a budget of $67.8 million for the 2008–09 fiscal year.[needs update] Fares cover only about 12 percent of the company's operating expenses; the rest is from Jefferson County's occupational tax, federal aid, and minor sources.[23] The occupational tax, 0.002 percent, covers about two-thirds of TARC's annual operating expenses; the total varies with the availability of federal grants and fares collected.[24] TARC had 710 employees in 2002, 460 of whom were bus drivers.[25]
Some funding is from a TARC transportation trust fund. The fund contained $28 million in 1992, which a local alderman said made TARC the "Cadillac" of America's bus systems. The city unsuccessfully proposed raiding it to fund theLouisville Free Public Library.[26] The fund had declined from $34 million in 1989 to $13 million in 1994, prompting cutbacks and rate hikes that year.[27]
TARC had a fleet of 227 buses in 2020, 32 of which werehybrid buses combining a diesel engine and an electric motor at increased cost. The hybrids were provided throughfederal highway-billearmarks by U.S. SenatorJim Bunning. A new TARC diesel bus cost $285,000 in 2007, and a hybrid bus cost $504,000; a new ULSD bus currently costs $405,000, and a hybrid costs $600,000. TARC also operates a fleet of 17 electric buses, reducing diesel emissions by 11,000 pounds (5,000 kg).
TARC announced in October 2010 that its hybrid bus fleet would increase to 21 with nine new buses, due to a grant of $3.9 million from the Federal Transit Authority's Clean Fuels Bus and Bus Facilities Program. A previous grant, through the federal stimulus program, paid for nine hybrid buses which arrived in July of that year.[28]
All buses have "kneeling" technology, which makes them easier to board, and a wheelchair lift. TARC once required disabled riders to use aparatransit service which had to be scheduled in advance, but all regular buses were made accessible after protests in 1986.[29]
| Year | Manufacturer | Model | Fleet # | Fuel type | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Gillig | Phantom Advantage Low Floor | 901–999 | Diesel | The retired 901 is being preserved; 922–971 scrapped or sold due to fire damage | |
| 2000 | Gillig | Phantom Advantage Low Floor 29- and 40-Foot | 2001–2057 | Diesel | Retired | |
| 2001 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40-Foot | 2101–2111 | Diesel | Retired; 2105 scrapped/sold due to fire damage | |
| 2002 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 29-Foot | 2250–2266 | Diesel |  | Retired |
| 2003 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40 | 2301–2320 | Diesel |  | retired |
| 2004 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor | 2401–2405 | Hybrid | retired | |
| 2005 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40-Foot | 2501–2516 | Diesel | 3 retired, 2 still.in use the rest stored out of service | |
| 2007 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40-Foot Hybrid | 2701–2704 | Hybrid | all are stored out of service | |
| 2007 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 35 | 2721–2726 | Diesel |  | 2726 is retired. 1 still in use the rest stored out of service |
| 2008 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor | 2801–2806 | Diesel | 2801 is stored out of service, 2802 is retired 2803, 2804 are still in use 2805 is stored out of service 2806 is retired | |
| 2009 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40-Foot Hybrid | 2901–2903 | Hybrid | all are stored out of service | |
| 2009 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40 | 2910–2926 | some stored out of service |  | |
| 2009 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 30 | 2930–2932 | Diesel |  | all are stored out of service |
| 2010 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor | 1001–1009 | Hybrid | | one stored out of service |
| 2013 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor | 1301–1316 | Diesel |  | All buses fitted with updated CAD/AVL system |
| 2013 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor | 1320–1330 | Hybrid |  | All buses fitted with updated CAD/AVK system |
| 2013 | Gillig | BRT | 1350–1370 | Diesel | 1370 used on the Dixie Rapid Line, All buses fitted with new CAD/AVL system | |
| 2014[30] | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor | 1401–1412 | Diesel |  | All.buses fitted with updated CAD/AVL system |
| 2014[31] | Proterra | Electric | 01-010 stored out of service, 011-017 repurposed for use on rt #52 medical center circulator 01-017 Proterra BE-30 and Catalist arrived between winter 2015 and summer 2016 | |||
| 2016 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40-Foot | 1601–1612 | Diesel |  | 1601–1612 Arrived summer 2016. All buses fitted with updated CAD/AVL onboard Technology 1613–1625, 1630 arrived February 2017 |
| 2017 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40-Foot | 1613–1625, 1630 | Diesel | 1601–1612 Arrived summer 2016; 1613–1625, 1630 arrived February 2017 all buses fitted with updated CAD/AVL system | |
| 2018 | Gillig | Advantage 35 Low Floor | 1701–1702 | Diesel | 1701-1702 equipped with updated CAD/AVL system | |
| 2019 | Gillig | Advantage 40 Low Floor | 1901–1910 | Diesel |  | All buses fitted with updated CAD/AVL system |
| 2019 | Gillig | BRT 40 Low Floor | 1921–1928 | Diesel | 1701–1702, 1901–1910, 1921–1928 arrived fall 2018-spring 2019, All buses equipped with new CAD)AVL system | |
| 2021 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40 | 2131–2144 | Diesel | _bus_2140.jpg) | First trips July 1 |
| 2021 | Gillig | BRT Low Floor 40 | 2121–2122 | Diesel | First trips July 21 | |
| 2021 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40 | 2130 | Diesel | First trip in October | |
| 2021 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40 | 2145–2158 | Diesel | First trip in October. All buses equipped with new CAD/AVL system | |
| 2021 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40 | 2159–2170 | Diesel | All buses fitted with updated CAD/AVL system | |
| 2021 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 35" | 2180–2183 | Diesel | _bus_2181.jpg) | 2181, 2183 fitted with updated CAD/AVL system |
| 2022 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor | 2201–2214 | Diesel | _nis_2212.jpg) | 14 ordered with leftover funding, delivered late winter 2022early spring 2023. 2209 fitted with updated CAD/AVL system |
| 2023 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40" | 2321-2331 | Diesel |  | All buses are now in service as of January 2024. |
| 2024 | Gillig | Advantage Low Floor 40" | 2410-2420 | Diesel | ||
| 2025 | Gillig | Advantage Plus Low Floor 40" | Electric | 8 on order |
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TARC has begun installation of Computer Aided Dispatch, and Automated Vehicle Location on its buses. There are currently a few pilot buses in service right now. The new CAD/AVL system will be up and running by early spring 2025.
Beginning March 1, 2025, a new bus tracking app will be available. It's called MyStop this new app will render other bus tracking apps. Like Moovit, Transit, and Google Maps Real-Time bus tracking obsolete. This app is from AVAIL Technologies based out of Pennsylvania. It will work in conjunction with the new CAD/AVL Technology. This equipment was purchased using a 9.3 million dollar federal grant. TARC expects the new tech to be up and running by early spring 2025.
The standard fare became $1 in 1994, up from $0.85 during peak hours and $0.50 during off-peak hours. On July 1, 2007, the fare was raised to $1.25. In June 2008, the adult fare was raised to $1.50 to help defray the increased cost of fuel. Since July 1, 2012, the base fare has been $1.75.[32] In 2018, fare boxes began to be updated.Smart cards would be accepted at a discount fare of $1.50, and riders paying cash would have to have exact change.[33] Discounts are offered tosenior citizens and high school students.[32] A "day tripper" one-day pass can be purchased for $3.50 while boarding the bus.[32][33] Express fares are $2.75, or $1 with a bus pass.[32] Up to three children under age six accompanied by a fare-paying rider ride for free.
TARC began an automated fare-collection system with new magnetic fare cards on January 7, 2019, and launched a new app.[34] The full one-way cash fare was $1.75 ($1.50 with a MYTARC fare card). A MYTARC 24-hour card was $3.50, $15 per week, or $50 for 30 days. A smart-card youth summer pass became available in late May 2019. The fare for seniors and persons with disabilities was $0.80 cents (cash or smart card), and 10-trip cards were available for $8.[35] Mobile Ticketing first became available July 1, 2019, through a pilot program. Only one route, the #4 Fourth St. route, used Mobile-Ticketing. The pilot program lasted 13 days. TARC formally launched a mobile ticketing app on April 23, 2024.[36]
Beginning April 1, 2025, University of Louisville students and employees will need to download the Token Transit app in order to utilize their student passes to board the bus.[37]
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