Running on Empty

Gas prices have more Knoxvillians parking cars, riding buses, while KAT considers route cuts to accommodate fuel expense

Knoxville Transportation Authority general manager Cindy McGinnis receives an influx of phone calls, e-mails and passenger comment cards each day about the current conundrum facing the Knoxville Area Transit bus system and its riders: Why, as many locals have increasingly parked their cars and taken the bus in recent months to cope with record high gas prices, has a proposal been made to eliminate routes and services, just as ridership has spiked?

Fuel expenses are not only hurting the pocketbooks of passengers, but the KAT bus system they’re turning to for a solution, and McGinnis says revenue from fares is a minor contribution to the overall KAT budget — gas prices are so high that the 10 percent increase in ridership this year, while welcome, does little to combat KAT’s escalating expenses.

“People have the opinion that overwhelming ridership is a good thing for us, but it really creates a problem because passenger fares are only 10 percent of revenues,” she says. “The impact of the price of fuel is so significant — it used to be so minor we didn’t even consider it in doing a budget, but now it’s 15 percent [of the budget]. It has inched up to become a significant portion.”

Knoxville Transportation Authority is now having to do what many new bus passengers have done: Find an alternative to make up for the expense. Some of the solutions proposed at its last meeting June 26 have KAT riders concerned, including the potential discontinuation of all Sunday service, the Halls and Farragut Express routes, Late Line Trolley service and a reduction of LIFT services for passengers with disabilities. KTA commissioners will consider the proposals at its July 24 meeting following a public hearing on the ideas.

“Of course, fuel has had a huge impact on anyone’s budget who operates vehicles and that’s definitely been the case with KAT,” McGinnis says. “We know we are going to have about a half-million dollar shortfall due to fuel prices at $4 a gallon. If it goes up much higher it will be that much worse, so we’re looking at various options of getting expenses more in line with our revenues.”

While ridership numbers weren’t necessarily a consideration, the proposals were made with an intention to disrupt the least amount of passengers and first serve those whom rely most on KAT services, McGinnis says.

But there may be no easy way to implement changes for the majority of KAT riders who rely on the transit system as their sole source of transportation to work, doctor’s appointments and school. At 5 p.m. on a recent Friday downtown, several riders at the main transfer point expressed worry for their abilities to earn a living without KAT services.

One Crowne Plaza employee awaiting the 40A bus to South Knoxville wished to withhold her name, but says she uses the bus to get to work and calls herself a “loyal KAT transportee:”

“Without [a ride to work] I guess I’d just have to go on welfare because I don’t have a car. They’d have to start dishing out food stamps, and that’s pretty sad for those of us who actually want to work.”

Rod Banion and Alicia Dinatale waited at the bus stop with two small children — both are seeking jobs, but say the potential cuts are affecting their availability to find work. “I use [the bus] for everything — to go to stores, look for a job. I ride pretty frequently, but [these proposals are limiting] the places I can look for work,” Dinatale says.

Rich Herzog is a Halls resident and loyal rider of the Halls Express bus — he shares one car with his wife, a stay-at-home mother who cares for the couple’s 21-month-old daughter during the day, and says riding the bus to his job downtown saves his family a lot of trouble, time, fuel costs, mileage and insurance expenses. He estimates ridership on his route has tripled in the last year, and he plans to attend the July 24 meeting with fellow members of the newly formed Halls Express Rider Group, a grassroots effort among regular passengers to save their route.