TARC's System Maps

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.

Changes Since 1989

As a bonus, we present a history of the numerous minor (and a few major) routing changes that have taken place since 1989.

Changes effective 15 August 1999

• 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.

Changs effective 30 May 1999

• 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.

Other Changes Since 1989

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

Bluegrass Industrial Park

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.