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TARC's System Maps

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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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