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part of Darren's Map
Collection
As a bonus, a list of changes made to
TARC routes since 1989 is available on this page.
In the 1980s, the Transit
Authority of River City, Louisville, KY's public transit agency,
published the Transit Map of Greater Louisville.
The Transit Map is a complete street map of Greater Louisville with
all TARC routes highlighted, with all streets shown (though not all
streets are labeled). On the reverse side of the city map is a
detailed map of the streets and bus lines of Downtown, since almost
all of TARC's local and express routes serve Downtown. "ICON of KY"
is credited for some revisions, but I cannot find any information on
this company. You can thank Esselte Map Service USA, Boston, MA, for
the original 1981 version of this map.
Since 1989, numerous changes, enhancements, and additions, minor
and drastic, to TARC's routes made revising this map prohibitively
expensive, so while TARC was adding more and more shuttle routes and
refining its existing service, your 1989 Transit Map of Greater
Louisville was becoming obsolete and you probably threw it away.
Fortunately my mother did not and was able to find me a copy.
:)
In 1999, TARC is once again publishing the Transit Map, this time
with completely different cartography by G. D. Nelson Mapping Services of
Denver, CO. You can see samples of some of the other transit
maps they have done on their web site. The Rochester, NY detail
shows gives a good idea how multiple routes are indicated.
This page attempts to illustrate and compares the cartography of
the two maps. Image samples from the 1989 and 1999 maps are shown.
This document also discusses the changes made to TARC's routes in the
past ten years.
The 1989 Map
Every road used by one or more routes is indicated as a solid red
line; the other streets comprising a complete street map of the area
are shown as white lines on the peach color background.
Local route number markers are solid black with white text; express
route markers have a reverse color scheme.
Railroads are indicated by solid dark gray lines; city boundaries
by dashed dark gray lines. Recreational areas, hospitals, and
boundaries of water are indicated by their own colors.
Unfortunately, some routes that serve the outer fringes of the area
had to be cut off; you didn't see the terminii of Routes 50, 56, 59,
64, 65, 66, 68, 70, and 73, because no insets were provided for those
areas.
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The 1999 Map
Here, each route is shown by a line of its own color, allowing the
user to follow a route by following the color continuously (where
space permits) instead of trying to find route markers.
Local routes are solid lines; express routes have a thin white line in
the middle, more readily allowing the user to determine what areas are
served by local or express routes.
Sometimes multiple routes are shown as solid lines next to eachother;
other times they are shown as a solid line with alternating colors.
Mutliple express routes are shown as a black line with white in the
middle; multiple local routes sharing roadway are indicated as a
single thin black line, though that's not shown in the scanned sample.
In addition, all major roads are shown and labeled, but not all the
surface streets. This is only a great loss if you know the street
plan of your source or destination area like I do.
To distinguish different classes of routes, local route markers are
circles; express route markers are diamonds; shuttle routes are
rectangles; and circulator routes (not shown here) are ovals.
Finally, note how the aspect ratio of the image is slightly
squashed vertically; this is presumably to provide a larger coverage
area, extending further north and south without making the map larger.
Insets are provided for Sellersburg, Shepherdsville/Mt. Washington,
and LaGrange.
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As a bonus, we present a history of the numerous minor (and a few
major) routing changes that have taken place since 1989.
- Service to Queen, Brookline, and the Kathleen/Southcrest Loop was
discontinued on Route 4.
- Service to Central State Hospital was reinstated on Route 19.
- Trips to Fern Creek were rerouted off Fegenbush Lane; they now
travel via Shepherdsville Road and Outer Loop to Beulah Church Road.
- Route 58 now has one branch. Between Stanton/Furman and
Brckenridge/Dutchmans, all trips operate on Stanton, Midland,
Melbourne, Hikes Lane, Breckenridge Lane, Taylorsville Road, and
Dutchmans Lane. Buses do not operate on Furman nor on Breckenridge
between Taylorsville and Dutchmans.
- Route 60 no longer serves the Farmgate subdivision; its eastern
terminus was extended to Fern Creek.
- Route 62 no longer serves south of Jefferson Mall to Normie/Kurtz.
- Routes 281 (Jeffersonville Shuttle) and 71 (Express) were combined
into Route 71 Jeffersonville, providing all-day every day service to
Jeffersonville from Downtown Louisville.
- Weekend service to Central State Hospital was moved from Route 19
to Route 31 via Hurstbourne Parkway and Dorsey Lane.
- Route 256 Sun Valley Shuttle was discontinued.
- Route 261 Kentucky Street Shuttle was discontinued.
- Route 33 now terminates at the Nia Center.
While TARC faced many cutbacks in service once in the early 1990s due
to financial woes, they still managed to make numerous changes to
their service since 1989, many of which seem to be beneficial, a few
others of which simply attempt to make service more efficient. 1989
is a good reference point for documenting changes in TARC service for
another reason: this document sort of picks up where the May-June 1990
and May-June 1991 Motor Coach Age
articles left off.
Southern Indiana
While Express Routes 69, 70, 71, and 73 remain intact with little
change, local service to Southern Indiana was completely redone in
1997.
Route 72 - Before 1997 there was Route 72. It served New
Albany, Clarksville, Downtown Louisville, and Jeffersonville, in
that order, on the eastbound trips, and in reverse order
westbound. Trips in both directions made an unusually long ``detour''
to Downtown Louisville. If you were close to Court and Spring, you
could walk and wait for the westbound 72 to come back to
Jeffersonville. Otherwise you had no choice but to waste time riding
through Downtown Louisville to get to Clarksville and New Albany, and
vice versa. Route 72 was a rather confusing route with an erratic
schedule, and had no service on Sundays or holidays.
On Sunday, 26 January 1997, Route 72 was replaced with Shuttle
Routes 281 and 282, with the connection to Louisville via an extension
of the Second Street line to Jeffersonville and RiverFalls Mall, the
transfer point for Routes 281 to 283 (and now, 284). Route 283 served
Indiana University Southeast via Blackiston Mill Road, but has since
been discontinued after about a year. In the summer of 1998, Route
284 added weekday hourly service to Sellersburg from RiverFalls Mall,
via Progress Blvd (where Route 2 stopped going), US 31, IN 60, and IN
311.
Sometime in 1998, Route 2 has been extended to serve Green Tree
Mall, and service between Clarksville and Jeffersonville was rerouted
via Eastern Boulevard and Spring Street between Clarksville and
Jeffersonville. The buses used to take I-65 and get off at the
horrible IN 131/US 31 interchange to take US 31 and Progress Blvd.
West Louisville
At the same time TARC revamped Southern Indiana service, it opened
the Nia Center at 29th and Broadway and introduced three new West
Louisville shuttle routes, 33, 261, and 262. The Nia Center has a
customer service center and services for job training and economic
development in West Louisville.
Route 261 travels eastward from the Nia Center to Barret Avenue via
Garland, Kentucky, and Breckinridge Streets. (It went all the way to
Baxter/Lexington at one point). Since then, Routes 23, 25, 96, and 19
have been rerouted slightly to swing by.
Route 262 (with Saturday service!) travels from the Nia Center via
Broadway, 34th Street, the Portland neighbourhood, and I-64 to to
Floyd Memorial Hospital and Indiana University Southeast in New
Albany.
Route 96, the Parkhill West Shuttle, was introduced earlier
(c. 1995?) as a single bus route to connect many West Louisville
neighbourhoods.
Route 33 does not go to the Nia Center, but it was introduced the
same time Routes 261 and 262 do. It serves the University of
Louisville and takes Winkler Avenue and Algonquin Parkway to Shawnee
Park. Once slated for cancellation, the route still exists.
Southwest Jefferson County
In August 1997, TARC added shuttle routes 251 to 257 to enahnce local
service to Southwestern Jefferson County, with Dixie Manor being the
transfer point. When these shuttle routes were introduced, Route 18
terminated at Dixie Manor; service further down Dixie Highway to
Bethany Lane, which looped at Valley Shopping Center, was transfered
to Route 251 (now discontinued, this route was still pointless because
Routes 256 and 257 went there too but didn't pull in); and service to
Deering Road was transfered to Rotue 252, and rerouted onto
Stonestreet Road from East Pages Lane. Route 253 serves St. Andrews
Church Road and Manslick Road, ending at Crums Lane and 7th Street
Road. Route 254 serves the new Riverport industrial complex, and a
couple rush hour trips on Route 19 have been extended there, too.
Route 255 serves Fairdale via East Pages Lane, Third Street Road, and
National Turnpike. Route 256 Sun Valley Shuttle takes you via Bethany
Lane and Lower River Road to Ashby Lane. Route 257 introduced local
service to Watson Lane, where routes 50 and 56 terminated, but has
since been consolidated back into Route 18.
Bluegrass Industrial Park
This section needs verbiage. Since I don't have verbiage on
Bluegrass Industrial Park service yet, the following thought will have
to do: Little did I know back in 1985 when I was making frequent field
trips to Blackacre Nature Preserve on Tucker Station Road north of
Taylorsville Road, that Bluegrass Industrial Park was no more than two
miles away.
Route Extensions
- Route 2 was extended to the UPS Hub, and there is rush-hour
service all the way to Preston and Ulrich.
- Route 12 was extended to 7th and Algonquin; it now meets Routes 6
and 33.
- Route 55, now known as Westport Road, was extended to Murphy and
Tazwell via Westport Road, and also serves the new Springhurst Towne
Center. Saturday Service has been added, and weekday service hours
have been increased.
Express Service Changes
- Express trips on Route 17 now use I-65 and I-264.
- Express trips on Routes 70 and 71 use the Second Street Bridge
instead of I-65 over the Ohio River.
Route Consolidations
- Route 38 was consolidated into Route 6. Express service now uses
3rd Street and Winkler Avenue.
- In January 1997, Route 11 was consolidated into Route 43, and
Sunday service was added to Poplar Level Road. In the east part of
Downtown, the routing via 1st/2nd and Broadway from Jefferson/Market
to Shelby/Campbell was chosen over the old 11 routing via
Shelby/Campbell to Jefferson/Market. The routing via Goss between
Shelby/Logan and Eastern Parkway was used for a while, but now the old
11 routing via Shelby, Burnett, and Texas is used.
- Route 47 was consolidated into Route 46.
- Route 57 was consolidated into Route 56, which doesn't serve
Watson Lane anymore (Routes 18 and 50 provide service there)
Route Switcheroos
- Service to Strathmoor (Dundee and Emerson) has been moved from
Route 23 to Route 21 (though Route 23 still goes to Atherton High
School).
- Serivce to Peabody and Goldsmith via Gardiner and Newburg was
transfered from Route 23 to Route 21, and has been extended to
Bashford Manor Mall.
- Service to Betty and Gardiner via Bon Air was transfered from
Route 17 to Route 21.
- Local service to Jeffersontown is now on Route 23; Route 40 is an
express-only route. Service to Jefferson on both routes has been
extended to Michael Edward Drive via Billtown Road. Route 23 also
takes over the service to Linn Station Road.
Minor Route Extensions
- Route 59 was extended in January 1999 to serve Hunting Creek and
Downtown Louisville like Route 68 does.
- Route 44 has been extended to Dupont Circle.
- Route 17 trips to Fern Creek now loop at Glenmary Farm Drive
instead of Beulah Church Road and Fern Creek Road.
- Routes 18 and 45 have been extended eastward to Rochelle Road and
Vandre Drive.
- Service on Route 19 to Lagrange Road now loops via Westport Road
and Collins Lane.
- Route 31 service in Middletown has been rerouted slightly (details
not here yet; look at the maps) and has been extended to English
Station Road (there's a Bigg's Hypermarket there).
Miscellaneous Minor Changes
- Service on Route 23 to Hunsinger and Pamela is now via Dutchmans
Lane and Browns Lane.
- Service to the ``Big A'' shopping Center on Route 22 was
discontinued.
- Route 29 no longer serves Lake Dreamland, but turns around at Lake
Dreamland Road and Campground Road.
- Routes 49 and 55 now loop down to Lagrange Road to connect with
Route 19.
- For a short while, Route 37 was consolidated into Route 4. For an
even shorter while, the express buses used 4th Street. Take
heart---express service to Iroquois Park is back to what it was in
1989, except it's called the Iroquois Park Express.
- Service on Route 2 via Floyd and Boxley has been discontinued.
- Southland Park service on Route 4 no longer loops at Downes Lane,
New Way, and East Southside Court.
- Route 25 no longer loops at Grandview, Browns, and Hycliffe.
- Route 21 no longer loops at Hepburn, Edward, and Ruler.
- Route 25 no longer loops at Glenmary and Ray.
- Route 23 no longer loops at Edenside.
- Route 23 no longer loops at Richland.
- Route 19 no longer loops at Grandview and Browns.
- Route 18 no longer loops at Meadow, Dearing, and Orchard.
- Routes 29 and 19 no longer loop at Dayton and Meridian.
- Route 62 no longer loops at Landside and Six Mile Lane.
- Route 21 uses the Wallace Loop now.
- Routes 25 and 29 now loop at Sears and Oechsli.
- Route 23 now goes to St. Xavier High School to deliver kids.
- Route 21 no longer serves Richmond Drive between Baxter
Avenue/Newburg Road and Norris Place. Were Baxter/Richmond and
Shady/Norris two separate sub-branches of the same branch?
Things You May Look Forward To (But Not Definitely)
- A map of Route 72, along with a timetable from a few years ago to
exemplify the erraticism of its timetables.
- Perhaps I may actually muster the courage to talk to TARC
officials and get some more information out of them on why some of the
service adjustments have been made, etc.
Routes In 1989
- (1)
- Toonerville II Trolley
- 2
- Second Street
- 4
- Fourth Street
- 6
- Sixth Street
- 11
- Portland-Shelby [now consolidated into Route 43]
- 12
- Twelfth Street
- 15
- Market Street
- 17
- Bardstown Road
- 18
- Preston-18th
- 19
- Muhammad Ali Boulevard
- 21
- Chestnut Street
- 22
- Twenty-Second Street
- 23
- Broadway
- 25
- Oak Street
- 27
- Hill Street
- 29
- Eastern Parkway
- 31
- Middletown
- 37
- Fourth Street Express [now Iroquois Park Express]
- 38
- Sixth Street Express [now consolidated into Route 6]
- 40
- Jeffersontown [now an express route; local
service to Jeffersontown is on Route 23]
- 43
- Poplar Level Road
- 44
- St. Regis Park
- 45
- Okolona Express
- 46
- 26th Street G.E. Express
- 47
- 42nd Street G.E. Express [now consolidated into Route 46]
- 48
- Fairdale Express
- 49
- Westport Road Express
- 50
- Dixie/Kosmosdale Express
- 51
- Fourth Avenue Circulator
- 52
- Medical Center Circulator
- 53
- Breckenridge Express
- 54
- Manslick Express
- 55
- Hounz Lane [now Westport Road]
- 56
- Ford and G.E. Express (Watson)
- 57
- Ford and G.E. Express (Deering) [now consolidated into Route 56]
- 58
- Bashford Manor-Oxmoor
- 59
- River Road
- 60
- Highview Express
- 61
- Plainview Express
- 62
- Breckenridge Lane-Shepherdsville Road
- 63
- Crums Lane
- 64
- Oldham County Express
- 65
- Bulitt County/Shepherdsville [discontinued - was this a local route?]
- 66
- Mt. Washington/Shepherdsville Express
- 68
- Prospect Express
- 69
- New Albany Express
- 70
- Clarksville Express
- 71
- Jeffersonville Express
- 72
- New Albany/Clarksville/Jeffersonville [now routes 2, 281, and 282]
- 73
- Charlestown Road Express
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TARC Routes In 1999
- (1)
- Toonerville II Trolley
- 2
- Second Street
- 4
- Fourth Street
- 6
- Sixth Street
- 10
- Downtown F.L.I.E.R. (parking shuttle)
- 12
- Twelfth Street
- 15
- Market Street
- 17
- Bardstown Road
- 18
- Preston-18th
- 19
- Muhammad Ali Boulevard
- 21
- Chestnut Street
- 22
- Twenty-Second Street
- 23
- Broadway
- 25
- Oak Street
- 27
- Hill Street
- 29
- Eastern Parkway
- 31
- Middletown
- 33
- Algonquin Parkway Shuttle [introduced 27 January 1997]
- 37
- Iroquois Park Express
- 40
- Jeffersontown Express
- 43
- Poplar Level Road/Portland
- 44
- St. Regis Park
- 45
- Okolona Express
- 46
- 26th/42nd G.E. Express
- 48
- Fairdale Express
- 49
- Westport Road Express
- 50
- Dixie Express
- 51
- Fourth Avenue Circulator
- 52
- Medical Center Circulator
- 53
- Breckenridge Express
- 54
- Manslick Express
- 55
- Westport Road
- 56
- Ford-G.E. Deering Express
- 58
- Bashford Manor-Oxmoor
- 59
- River Road
- 60
- Highview Express
- 61
- Plainview Express
- 62
- Breckenridge Lane-Shepherdsville Road
- 63
- Crums Lane
- 64
- Oldham County Express
- 66
- Mt. Washington/Shepherdsville Express
- 68
- Prospect Express
- 69
- New Albany Express
- 70
- Clarksville Express
- 71
- Jeffersonville
- 73
- Charlestown Road Express
- 75
- Red Shuttle (Bluegrass Industrial Park)
- 76
- Green Shuttle (Bluegrass Industrial Park)
- 77
- Main Street Trolley Circulator
- 78
- Downtown/Bluegrass Express
- 80
- Bluegrass Industrial Park Shuttle
- 84
- South Louisville Shuttle
- 96
- Parkhill Shuttle
- 252
- Deering Road Shuttle
- 253
- St. Andrews/Manslick Shuttle
- 254
- Riverport Shuttle
- 255
- Fairdale Shuttle
- 262
- New Albany/Louisville Shuttle
- 282
- New Albany Shuttle
- 284
- Sellersburg Shuttle
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Experimental Routes No Longer In Service
These are the routes that TARC has experimented with since 1989, but
are no longer in service.
- 74
- Valley Village/West Point
- 79
- ?
- 81
- Middletown/Berrytown
- 82
- East Indian Trail
- 83
- Hounz Lane East
This was a Saturday-only route that
served the eastern portion of the 55 Hounz Lane route. Westport
Road is now served on Saturdays on Route 55.
- 85
- Fairdale (see Route 255)
- 251
- Valley Station Shuttle
- 256
- Sun Valley Shuttle (discontinued)
- 257
- Valley Village Shuttle (consolidated into Route 18)
- 261
- Kentucky Street Shuttle (discontinued)
- 281
- Jeffersonville Shuttle (consolidated into Route 71)
- 283
- Blackiston Mill Road Shuttle
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