KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The downtown Knoxville Trolley may soon be a thing of the past.
Knoxville Area Transit, or KAT, released a draft of a reimagined transit network in February. In the reimagined draft, the current free downtown trolley routes would be replaced with a single bus route.
Currently, the Knoxville Trolley has three routes. The blue line route covers the Knoxville Station, the Civic Coliseum and the city's waterfront. The green line route covers the Old City and Gay Street. The orange line route covers the University of Tennessee and Downtown.
On the reimagined route, a bus would run from the Civic Coliseum garage to and from downtown and would still circulate from downtown to Regas Square, according to a KAT bus official.
Service from downtown to the University of Tennessee would be through regular fixed routes—8 buses each hour and 2 more going from downtown through Fort Sanders.
The reimagined route could possibly have a fare. However, KAT officials say they're looking at options and potential partnerships to wave the fare.
The trolley-style buses would be phased out and replaced with electrics, which would be much quieter, according to a KAT official.
There is a public hearing on the reimagined network on Thursday, July 27 at 3 p.m. in the Main Assembly Room of the City-County Building.
