UT has announced that it has accepted the proposal offered by First Transit to operate the Campus Transit Service. Knoxville Area Transit (KAT) currently operates this service as The T System. First Transit is a private provider of transportation services and is scheduled to begin providing the campus service in June 2013.

KAT was unable to comply with many of the specifications in the request for proposals, including a requirement to operate a fleet composed solely of current-model-year vehicles.

Title VI Civil Rights provisions of our federal funding agreements prevent KAT from operating premium vehicles in only one part of their service area.

KAT also cannot provide additional services to UT when requested without incurring Federal Charter regulations that render KAT being less than flexible for last-minute and special requests. For these and other reasons, many universities are opting for private operation of their campus transit service recently, including LSU and the University of Alabama.

The end of KAT's current agreement with UT is June 1, 2013. In the meantime, KAT will continue to provide quality service to the UT community and as smooth a transition as possible.