TARC 2025 Draft Plan

TARC connects our community to jobs, schools, medical appointments, shopping, entertainment and to each other. We take this responsibility very seriously and are committed to providing exceptional service. However, TARC is facing historic financial challenges and a looming deficit. Action must be taken now to ensure the system’s long-term sustainability.

 TARC 2025: Moving Forward Together  is a key strategy to address this challenge and better meet our shared priorities. It is also an important opportunity to redesign Louisville’s transit network to update and innovate service to better match the current and future needs of the Louisville region.

Available funding will ultimately dictate what plan/service level TARC will implement. TARC’s cost saving measures over the last year - including two rounds of service cuts in the last six months – has bought the region more time to make a decision. But long term, TARC still faces a sizeable fiscal gap and further service reductions are needed if no new revenue is received. 

The choices include:

• The Limited Plan would provide significantly reduced service compared to today, but at a level TARC is confident existing revenues can support. This is a barebones plan that TARC hopes to not have to implement. Fortunately, thanks to the recent cost cutting measures, TARC projects that this plan would only have to be implemented as a last resort if no additional funding is identified by 2030.   
• The Enhanced Plan would see slightly reduced service levels from today but with a redesigned network that would provide better access to jobs than the current network - as well as better coverage and connectivity than the Limited Plan. It will also provide service to all JCPS magnet high schools. While the Enhanced Plan provides better service than the Limited Plan, TARC could not maintain it indefinitely without additional funding. If TARC were to implement the Enhanced Plan in the summer of 2026, it would buy the region time until 2030 to determine if more investment is needed in transit. After that, if no more funding were available, TARC would need to cut service again.
• The Growth Plan: If the region determines to prioritize significant new investment in transit, TARC could implement the Growth Plan – which would see a sizeable increase in service levels, access to jobs, frequency and coverage. The Growth Plan is intended to be more of a long-term vision for regional transit and shows what the region would be able to achieve with ample new investment in transit.    

The earliest TARC could fully implement any redesigned network is summer 2026. But the exact timing will depend on whether additional funding looks likely – and at what level.

Each proposal prioritizes the TARC budget of service so that 70% of service focuses on ridership goals and 30% focuses on coverage goals. That means there is a higher proportion of frequent service in areas with high ridership potential than the existing TARC network. This also means there is less coverage – especially in the Limited and Enhanced Plans than the existing TARC network. Most people who take transit today would see more reliable service and reduced travel times than they otherwise would have. But some people near transit today would no longer have access to transit service. For more about the Ridership-Coverage trade-off, see our  Existing Conditions Report  or this  short explainer from our consultant .

The split of resources between ridership and coverage goals is based on direction from the TARC board after hearing feedback from the TARC 2025 stakeholder advisory committee, TARC customers, and the general community during the concepts phase.

Refer to the  Accessible Materials  page to see how paratransit service is impacted in TARC 2025 and the Draft Plans.

The Limited Plan concentrates service on the areas where the most people would use transit and need transit, in order to offer high frequency routes.

This draft assumes no additional operating revenues, so it has 29% less service than today’s TARC network. TARC projects that this plan would only have to be implemented as a last resort if no additional funding is identified or no additional service reductions are made by 2028.

This network maintains the usefulness of the network where the most people use TARC today, within the funds available in the short-term.

• Red lines arrive every 15 minutes or less
• Blue lines arrive every 30 minutes
• Green lines arrive every 60 minutes

• The average resident can reach 9% fewer jobs by transit in 60 minutes compared to today’s Spring 2025 Network.
• 47% more residents are within a ½ mile walk of frequent transit service (a bus 15 minutes or better), compared to today’s network.
• 12% more jobs are within a ½ mile walk of frequent transit service (a bus 15 minutes or better), compared to today’s network.
• 34% fewer residents are within a ½ mile walk of any transit service.
• 30% fewer jobs are within a ½ mile walk of any transit service.

TARC’s recent cost savings measures have bought the region more time before service reductions to the level of the Limited Network are required. The Enhanced Network has lower service levels than today but better access to jobs.

Compared to the Limited Network it has more 30-minute corridors, expanded coverage, and service to all JCPS magnet high schools.

• Red lines arrive every 15 minutes or less
• Blue lines arrive every 30 minutes; dashed blue lines arrive every 30 minutes at school start/end times 
• Green lines arrive every 60 minutes; green lines with a blue dash indicate increase to every 30 minutes at school start/end times
• Tan lines are peak-only or have a limited schedule

• The average resident can reach 3% more jobs by transit in 60 minutes compared to today’s Spring 2025 Network.
• 47% more residents are within a ½ mile walk of frequent transit service (a bus 15 minutes or better), compared to today’s network.
• 12% more jobs are within a ½ mile walk of frequent transit service (a bus 15 minutes or better), compared to today’s network.
• 27% fewer residents are within a ½ mile walk of any transit service. Compared to the Limited Network there is more coverage, including keeping some level of transit service in Jeffersontown and along Cane Run Road.
• 6% fewer jobs are within a ½ mile walk of any transit service.
• If implemented in 2026 or 2027, TARC could likely afford to run this network with existing funding until 2030. If no new funding is available by then, TARC could only afford to run the Limited Network.

If the region determines to prioritize significant new investment in transit, TARC could implement the Growth Network – which would see a sizeable increase in service levels, access to jobs, frequency and coverage. This plan is intended to be more of a long-term vision for regional transit and shows what the region would be able to achieve with ample new investment in transit.

The Growth Network has 64% more resources compared to today’s network. Because of this, we’re able expand the high frequency routes from the Enhanced Draft and keep the amount of coverage similar to early 2024, before the recent round of service cuts occurred.

• Red lines arrive every 15 minutes or less
• Blue lines arrive every 30 minutes 
• Green lines arrive every 60 minutes
• Tan lines are peak-only or have a limited schedule
• Tan zones are On-Demand Zones

• The average resident can reach at least 20% more jobs by transit in 60 minutes compared to today's Spring 2025 Network.
• At least 98% more residents are within a 1/2 mile walk of frequent transit service (a bus every 15 minutes or better), compared to today's network.
• At least 37% more jobs are within 1 1/2 mile walk of frequent service (a bus every 15 minutes or better), compared to today's network.
• At least 1% more jobs are within a 1/2 mile walk of any transit service.
• The average resident near any service would increase a little.

The chart below shows how job access changes between the Spring 2024 network prior to service cuts, the current Spring 2025 network, and the three draft networks, on average, for all Jefferson County residents and for specific groups of residents. The dark blue bars are the jobs accessible in the Spring 2024 network, the light blue bars are the jobs accessible in the Spring 2025 network, the grey bars are the jobs accessible in the Limited Plan, the red bars are the jobs accessible in the Enhanced Plan, and the green bars are the jobs accessible in the Growth Concept*.

The chart below shows the coverage provided by TARC services in Spring 2025, compared to the coverage provided by all three Draft Networks, at midday on a weekday. Each group of bars is the coverage of residents within Jefferson County. The overall coverage is divided into coverage by transit of particular frequencies at midday. That tells us a bit more about how many people are near service that is useful.

The interactive map below allows you to compare access to jobs and residents from 72 different locations in Louisville. Select a location and open the linked graphic.

• Areas you can reach in both the Limited or Enhanced networks and in Spring 2025 are shaded in maroon.
• Areas accessible in the Limited or Enhanced networks but not in Spring 2025 are shaded in purple.
• Areas accessible in Spring 2025 but not the Limited or Enhanced networks are shaded in orange.

To expand the map and enhance it's functionality, press the arrow button in the top right corner.

Another option the Louisville community could consider is the JCPS Plan. The JCPS plan builds off of the Enhanced Plan network to provide morning and afternoon service to all JCPS high schools – magnet or otherwise. It would provide an additional option for parents and students throughout the school system as well as additional transit coverage to areas like Middletown and areas of southern Jefferson County that would not be served in the Limited or Enhanced plans. The JCPS plan would require some additional investment in order to implement, but much less than the Growth Plan.

• Red lines arrive every 15 minutes or less
• Blue lines arrive every 30 minutes; dashed blue lines arrive every 30 minutes at school start/end times 
• Green lines arrive every 60 minutes; green lines with a blue dash indicate increase to every 30 minutes at school start/end times
• Tan lines are peak-only or have a limited schedule

The survey on the draft networks will be open March 5 - April 30. Please take the  survey  to have your voice heard!