The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
TARC PLANS CHANGES IN ’25
Major weekday service reductions expected to help ward off financial problems
“This is not a step that the board takes lightly – but it is necessary.”
Ted Smith
TARC Board chairman
Louisville’s Transit Authority of River City (TARC) is likely to see major service reductions on weekdays by early next year to circumvent looming financial challenges anticipated by its board of directors.
The changes, included in TARC’s budget proposal for the fiscal year of 2025, head to Louisville Metro Council for final approval as part of its overall consideration of the city’s budget.
“This is not a step that the board takes lightly – but it is necessary,” TARC Board Chairman Ted Smith said in a news release shortly following the board’s budget approval.
In the tentative new schedule, fewer buses will be scheduled every hour on most TARC bus routes Monday through Friday. The service’s weekday frequency will be reduced to the level of service currently experienced on a Saturday.
No bus routes are expected to be eliminated, according to the release, and there will be no changes to the schedules of TARC3, a door-to-door, shared-ride service used for ADA paratransit.
The new schedule will also not affect TARC’s busiest routes – the core frequency routes that include the #4 4th Street, #10 Dixie Rapid, #23 Broadway, and #28 Preston Highway. According to TARC, these routes make up nearly half of the public transit’s daily usage. These routes will remain with their weekday frequency of every 15 minutes.
The proposed service schedule is described by TARC leadership as reminiscent of how the public transit agency operated during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
TARC leadership points toward the impending expiration of federal emergency funding support for transit agencies, minimal state support, and the stagnant Jefferson County occupational tax rate as large factors contributing to a “looming fiscal cliff” that would have TARC unable to meet expected expenses by mid-2026 if it maintained its current level of service.
With these changes, TARC leaders said in the release they could delay the fiscal cliff for another two years.
This service reduction is one of three changes intended to address TARC’s operational budget gap, projected to be as much as $30 million by July 2026. The other slated changes include efforts to find new funding sources and a redesign process for TARC’s network of services, which launches this summer.