Knoxville Area Transit ended the fiscal year with ridership totals of over 3 million passenger trips, up 119,000 over FY 14. The ending month of the fiscal year had a 12% ridership increase over June of 2014.

Ridership on KAT’s core routes has been increasing every year for several years. The regular route system has gone from an annual total of 1.6 million passenger trips in Fiscal Year 2011 to 2.17 million in Fiscal Year 2015. The downtown trolley system has seen a similar climb, from 479,000 passenger trips in FY 2011 to 718,000 in FY 2015.

KAT’s success this past fiscal year can be attributed to recent improvements in service frequency, the addition of later evening service on neighborhood-based routes, and the Cumberland Avenue Free Fare Zone campaign. The Route 11 – Kingston Pike line was up 9.6% - topping 30,000 passenger trips for the month of June – due in part to the Cumberland free fare zone.

“When you put better transit service out there people will take advantage of it, and I think that we’re seeing that in the numbers,” says Dawn Distler, the City of Knoxville’s Director of Transit. “We’ve been expanding our hours and improving our frequencies on those main line routes, and the public is responding. I’m seeing lots of new faces on the buses – people who are choosing transit over driving every day.”