Last Wednesday, Dawn Distler, the City of Knoxville’s Director of Transit, shared the good news about the increasing popularity of KAT bus ridership with U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

Knoxville Area Transit ended the fiscal year with ridership totals of more than 3 million passenger trips – up by 119,000 rides from the previous year. The ending month of the fiscal year saw a 12 percent ridership increase over June 2014.

“I had a few minutes to explain to the Secretary what we do and to share any challenges we’re facing,” Distler said. “It was great to be able to report to Secretary Foxx that we’re seeing an upward trend in ridership. Public transit is an investment, and we need to continue investing in people. People are choosing public transit more and more, because it’s easy and convenient. Our challenge is to make it even easier and more convenient.”