Transit Authority of River City

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 electric trolleys to diesel buses in the late 1940s and changing its name from the Louisville Railway to the Louisville Transit Company in 1947.^[3]

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 and Jeffersonville) 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 Mayor Harvey Sloane, which approved an increased occupational 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 with water-taxi service connecting the Belle of Louisville wharf and Towboat Annie's Restaurant in Jeffersonville.^[5] A feasibility study for a light rail system in the Louisville area was funded by TARC in 1996 and proposed a north–south route that followed the Interstate 65 corridor that was adopted in 1998.^[6][7] The project's draft environmental impact statement was submitted to the Federal Transit Administration, but was not recommended for final design due to a lack of clear state or local funding for the $661 million cost. TARC paused its planning and engineering work on the light rail line in May 2004.^[6][8]

In February 1994, an audit committee headed by Bruce 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.^[9] TARC's executive director resigned after the audit, and fares nearly doubled before the end of the year.^[10] In August 2011, TARC's new $4.5 million, 17,700-square-foot Maintenance and Training Annex received a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification.^[11]

TARC began to purchase hybrid buses in 2004, and began purchasing ultra-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 with WiFi. 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 the Courier 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 first bus rapid transit line.^[12]

TARC began an automated fare-collection system with new magnetic fare cards on January 7, 2019, and launched a new app.^[13] A smart-card youth summer pass became available in late May 2019.^[14] 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.^[15]

TARC purchased and took delivery of 72 clean diesel buses during FY 2022. TARC purchased 8 more electric buses that were expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of FY 2024. These 80 buses were to replace 80 older buses that had been in service since the mid-2000s.^{[citation needed]}

Beginning April 1, 2025, University of Louisville students and employees were required to download the Token Transit app in order to utilize their student passes to board the bus.^[16]

TARC operates buses which serve the Louisville area. The TARC network has 3,437 bus stops^[17], although only about 200 have benches and rain shelters; the rest simply have a sign indicating that the location is a bus stop.^[18] The stops are served by 27 routes^[19]. The daily routes are named for the primary road on which they run.

Since 1999, it has operated a shuttle service for the University of Louisville's main campus. The company operates two routes shuttling workers to Worldport, the hub of United Parcel Service and one of Louisville's largest employers.^[20] TARC launched a "Ride to Safety" program in 2007, which allows domestic abuse victims to use its buses for transportation to a shelter.^[21]

TARC and its predecessor had provided shuttle access to the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks since the 1950s, but in 2008 new federal rules required Churchill 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.^[22] TARC provides service to other local events, including Thunder Over Louisville and the Kentucky State Fair.^[23]

It began a "Bikes on Board" program in 2001, and two-to-three-bicycle bike 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.^[24]

Bus rapid transit

Main article: Dixie Rapid

Dixie Rapid is a bus rapid transit line that runs from Downtown Louisville to Dixie Highway.^[25] 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.^[26]

TARC purchased Louisville's Union 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.^[29]

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. ^[30] 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.^[31] TARC had 710 employees in 2002, 460 of whom were bus drivers.^[32]

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 the Louisville Free Public Library.^[33] The fund had declined from $34 million in 1989 to $13 million in 1994, prompting cutbacks and rate hikes that year.^[34]

TARC had a fleet of 227 buses in 2020, 32 of which were hybrid buses combining a diesel engine and an electric motor at increased cost. The hybrids were provided through federal highway-bill earmarks by U.S. Senator Jim 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.^[35]

All buses have "kneeling" technology, which makes them easier to board, and a wheelchair lift. TARC once required disabled riders to use a paratransit service which had to be scheduled in advance, but all regular buses were made accessible after protests in 1986.^[36]

More information 14 ordered with leftover funding, delivered late winter 2022 ...

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[37]	Gillig	Advantage Low Floor	1401–1412	Diesel		All.buses fitted with updated CAD/AVL system
2014[38]	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		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		2181, 2183 fitted with updated CAD/AVL system
2022	Gillig	Advantage Low Floor	2201–2214	Diesel		14 ordered with leftover funding, delivered late winter 2022${\displaystyle \wedge }$early 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 installed a new Computer Aided Dispatch/Automated Vehicle Location on its buses in early 2025. This allows for reliable real-time location data for buses available to riders, as well as audio/visual announcements on buses.^[39]

• List of bus transit systems in the United States
• Transportation in Louisville, Kentucky
• List of roads in Louisville, Kentucky