ride for change founded 1967 headquarters 301 church avenue locale knoxville tn service area knox county tennessee united states of america service type transit bus paratransit routes 25 stops 11 000 destinations 234 hubs 2 stations 1 lounge 66 fleet 100 annual ridership 3.6 million per year fuel type gasoline diesel operator amalgamated transit union local 1164 . chief executive dawn distler director website katbus.com knoxville area transit commonly referred to as kat is the operator of public transportation in knox county tennessee . twenty five routes operate . service on kat routes operate weekdays and saturdays with route 11 12 20 22 31 and 41 offering sunday service . all routes except for routes 16 19 44 76 and 90 start at the knoxville station in downtown . knoxville trolley lines is a free shuttle service which provides service to the university and the downtown area . 1 kat formerly operated the transit service for the university of tennessee known as the t. 2 contents 1 history 2 routes 2.1 regular knoxville area routes 2.2 knoxville trolley lines 2.3 the lift 3 fleet 4 hours 5 references history edit public transportation in knoxville dates back to 1876 when the first street cars of the knoxville street railway company were pulled by horses and mules along tracks on gay street . since then the transit system has undergone considerable changes beginning in 1890 with the conversion from animal drawn to electric powered streetcars . in 1910 the system serviced 11 million passengers each year on 42 miles of track introducing buses to serve the streetcar system s feeder routes in 1929 . by the late 1940s the system had mainly switched from electric streetcars to all buses with electric streetcars making their last run in 1947 . later in 1958 a bus service to the university of tennessee was added to the system . the bus service continued to get upgrades with air conditioned gmc buses added to the knoxville transit fleet in 1972 . in the 1980s and 1990s the knoxville transit system went through some internal changes first moving into a new facility on magnolia avenue in 1989 and then changing its name from k trans to knoxville area transit kat in 1995 . from the 90s onward the kat system continued to upgrade with a focus on environmental responsibility beginning its clean fuels program with the introduction of propane powered vehicles in 2003 . the next year the kat system was named north american transit system of the year by the american public transportation association . in 2010 the transit system again changed facilities moving its center of operations to the john j. duncan jr. knoxville station . in 2014 kat introduced three hybrid vehicles into its regular fleet . 3 routes edit regular knoxville area routes edit 10 sequyoah hills 11 kingston pike 12 western avenue . 13 beaumont . 16 cedar bluff connector 17 sutherland bearden 19 lakeshore lonas connector 20 central avenue clinton hwy . 21 lincoln park 22 broadway 23 millertown pike 24 inskip breda road 30 parkridge 31 magnolia avenue 32 dandridge avenue 33 mlk jr avenue 34 burlington 40 south knoxville 41 chapman highway 42 ut fort sanders hospitals 44 gateway apartments 45 vestal 51 football game express 90 crosstown connector this bus goes east and west these routes offer 7 day service . knoxville trolley lines edit orange line trolley blue line trolley green line trolley the lift edit kat offers paratransit lift service for those persons who are unable to use regular fixed route buses . the lift is by reservation only and you must be certified by kat to use the service . fleet edit number model 31 40 gillig trolley 2001 2003 ford e350 321 326 ford e450 710 721 chance opus 30 foot 931 937 chance opus 35 foot 3001 3006 ford e450 4001 4026 gillig lf 35 foot 3007 3012 brought out in july 11 2016 ford champion 5001 5008 gillig lf 40 foot 5009 5011 . gillig lf 40 foot hybrid electric future bus numbers . 4027 4031 gillig 35 hybrid electric low floor buses . hours edit kat buses operate normally 6 days a week from about 530am till 845 pm with some routes ending at 11 15p . m. kat does not operate on the following holidays new years day independence day thanksgiving and christmas . saturday schedule is in effect on martin luther king day memorial day labor day day before christmas and day after thanksgiving . 7 day service is available on the following routes 11 12 20 22 31 and 41 . references edit knoxville area transit trolley lines the t the university of tennessee s transportation system operated kat knoxville area transit . knoxville area transit general info page 2 . retrieved 20 september 2016 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title knoxville area transit & oldid 740373440 categories bus transportation in tennesseetransportation in knox county tennesseetransportation in knoxville tennessee navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit 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