Blog: City Blog

KAT Ridership Up 57% With Expanded Sunday Service

In the five Sundays since expanding service, KAT Sunday ridership is up by 57 percent.

In the first five Sundays since expanding service, Knoxville Area Transit's Sunday ridership is up by 57 percent - or 1,803 more passenger trips.

Service on four routes - Kingston Pike, Broadway, Magnolia Avenue and Chapman Highway - was extended by four hours, starting on Aug. 30. Buses on Sunday are running these routes starting at 8:15 a.m., with the last run from downtown at 8:15 p.m.

In addition, Route 12 - Western Avenue and Route 20 - Central Avenue began operating on Sundays.

According to Dawn Distler, the City's Director of Transit, the enhancement had been a KAT priority for several years. Increasing Sunday service has been the top-requested system improvement by riders.

"When KAT increases transit services, it often takes several weeks or even months for people to start enjoying the expanded service,” said Belinda Woodiel-Brill, Director of Communications and Service Development for KAT. “This was not the case with our expanded Sunday services, which just shows how much this service has been appreciated by KAT passengers. Ridership increased immediately.”

KAT has methodically been improving services and increasing frequency of pickups on its core routes. As a result, bus ridership is on the rise; last year, KAT exceeded 3 million passenger trips.

For information regarding KAT bus services, visit www.katbus.com or call 865-637-3000.

Meanwhile, there's still one more “Trolleys on Tap” listening session. The six-session series winds down on Wednesday, Oct. 7, with a 5-6:30 p.m. conversation at Old City Java, 109 S. Central St.

"Trolleys on Tap" is an invitation for riders to share their ideas on improving the trolley system. These listening sessions feature a large downtown map so participants can design their ideal trolley routes and suggest their own route times.

Check out the past five “Trolleys on Tap” sessions - http://www.knoxvilletn.gov/katblog - to see what others have suggested.

Can't make it Wednesday? You can still share your ideas by filling out an online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KAT-Trolley.

KAT ridership exceeds 3 million passenger trips a year.

Posted by evreeland On 05 October, 2015 at 12:43 PM