update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . march 2014 lextran parent lexington fayette urban county government founded april 1972 headquarters 109 west loudon avenue lexington ky locale lexington and fayette county service area lexington urban service boundary 1 service type bus paratransit routes 21 bus 2 stops 900 2 hubs lexington transit center fleet 73 3 daily ridership 17 265 fiscal year 2012 2013 2 fuel type mixed fleet diesel and hybrid electric 2 operator transit authority of lfugc website http www.lextran.com the first day of running the new gillig cng powered buses from water street . lextran officially the transit authority of the lexington fayette urban county government 4 is a public transportation bus system serving lexington kentucky . it runs bus routes throughout the city which mostly converge in downtown at the lexington transit center located at 220 east vine . lextran provides public transportation in the form of buses and lift vans . it operates seven days a week with a total of 21 routes running from 5am until 12am . in addition to mainline and paratransit lextran contracts with the university of kentucky and operates two routes around the campus . 5 it also runs two routes to the bluegrass community and technical college campuses . 6 even though lexington and fayette county are a consolidated government lextran does not provide service outside the lexington city proper due to limited funding sources . 7 contents 1 history 2 route list 3 route frequency 4 2016 system overhaul 5 fleet 6 ridership per line 7 references 8 external links history edit prior to lextran s current existence lexington was served by numerous private transit systems . the first such system was the lexington railway company streetcars which began operation in 1874 8 that used horse drawn stagecoaches . the name changed to the lexington street railway company soon after to avoid confusion with the steam railroads . in 1890 the system was upgraded to streetcars and was referred to as the kentucky traction and terminal company . the streetcars ceased operations in 1938 when they were replaced by motorized buses under the lexington railway system name which later became the lexington transit corporation . by the early 1970s expenses associated with the operation of the motorized buses soon outstripped revenue for the lexington transit corporation . 8 in april 1972 the lexington fayette urban county government incorporated the system under the local government and renamed the system lextran . in 1997 lextran introduced the lexington bluegrass mobility office . 9 it offers carpooling and vanpooling computer ridematching services and lexvan a work commute vanpool leasing program . in 2003 2004 lextran bought 13 low floor thomas 35 feet buses and 6 low floor gillig 40 feet buses in an attempt to make the system more accessible to those with physical disabilities . in 2004 the system received additional funding from a successful ballot initiative to implement a new property tax dedicated to helping fund the lextran system . 10 since the tax referendum passed lextran s system has grown by 50 % and the number of passenger boardings and operators more than doubled . in 2007 lextran received several upgrades to its fleet of buses and facilities . 10 a renovation and expansion of the main lextran facilities on east loudon avenue expected to cost 7.5 million lextran was also seeking 3.1 million for new buses 1.5 million for an automated vehicle locator and 800 000 to purchase new fare boxes . phase one of the expansion project includes the construction of a new bus fuel and wash building at 109 west loudon avenue along with upgrades to the restrooms and break room at the lexington transit center . in addition lextran phased out all of their high floor buses except for vans making all mainlines very accessible for those with disabilities . in 2009 lextran bought 3 gillig trolleys to start their trolley service tolley service does not exist anymore ; however lextran still uses these buses on lower ridership lines as they are the same size as the smaller low floor gillig 29 feet buses . in 2011 lextran purchased 2 new hybrid electric and 5 gillig 29 feet buses to be used on lower ridership routes . between 2012 2014 lextran purchased an additional 6 gillig 40 feet buses in 2016 the bus fleet will increase from 73 as of january 2016 to 76 with 5 new proterra electric busses and 7 new gillig cng busses with 9 of lextran s oldest thomas transit buses similar to the european dennis dart being retired . in addition the new lextran depot located at 200 west loudon avenue which was the location of an old general electric manufacturing plant . this new depot will allow much more space for onsite bus and employee parking compared to the old depot . there is also more space for maintenance facilities which are all fully equipped for all of their buses . in addition lextran will be partnering with lfucg to open a public cng fueling station on the depot s property . at the transit center during the 40th anniversary . route list edit 1 woodhill to darby creek 11 2 georgetown road to citation blvd 3 tates creek to nichols park 4 newtown pike to stanton way 5 nicholasville road to nichols park 6 north broadway to pennebaker drive 7 north limestone to anniston drive 8 versailles road to emerson center 9 eastland to creative dr 10 hamburg pavilion to polo club blvd 11 richmond road to st. joseph hospital east 12 leestown road to va medical center 13 south broadway to palomar centre 14 uk commonwealth stadium to the steps 15 red mile serving uk community to the steps 16 southland drive to emerson center 17 northside connector to eastland pkwy 18 centre parkway connector to centre pkwy 20 masterson station to sandersville road 21 blue grass airport keeneland 26 greg page shuttle route frequency edit mainlines are considered to be routes 1 13 meaning that they run from a 5am departure usually in the middle of the route until the 12am arrival at the transit center . all mainlines run every 35 minutes during 3 4 hour rush hour in the morning and evening on a weekday . some mainlines with lower ridership will reduce frequency during the day to only once every 70 minutes . all mainlines are bidirectional until 9 20pm departure where some routes with fewer riders at night become combo routes with a nearby line with one traveling outbound and the other inbound . fortunately with this most stops are still serviced but some are forced to ride for much longer times than they usually do during the day . saturdays on all lines have reduced frequency with only once per hour frequency . sunday routes are similar to saturday routes which run once an hour . sunday schedules run from 5 45am until the 9 00pm arrival at the transit center . route 16 is not considered a mainline bus but still leaves from the transit center throughout the day from 6 20am 7pm once per 70 minutes . a lextran bus picks up students in front of the main building on south limestone on wednesday june 17 2015 in lexington kentucky . photo by taylor pence routes 14 and 15 are circular routes that serve the uk community and have the same fare as all other buses in lextran ; however fare is free for all uk students and faculty . these lines are the most frequent running in lextran from 7am 9pm every 4 to 12 minutes depending on the time of day . line 15 specifically has a reputation for getting behind schedule and experiences what s known as bus bunching . routes 17 and 18 are connector routes that help those wanting to move laterally as opposed to having to go to downtown and back out . they also serve areas that are not normally served by mainlines but still have decent demand for ridership . only route 18 has service outside of peak hours and on saturdays . routes 20 21 and 23 only serve specific areas that are far from the transit center because the areas they serve don t have high demand they only run during peak hours making them run only for a few hours every day . however route 21 now serves the busiest sections of route 8 which will provide more frequency to and from downtown and direct access to keeneland . lextran is seeking to eliminate these lines and integrate them with existing mainlines . 2016 system overhaul edit because lextran was seeking to serve high demand areas with better service some less efficient lines were eliminated . these routes included 24 25 and 31 . some of these eliminated lines were integrated with existing lines ; however most areas have become underserved . for those who live on mainlines there are fewer changes for instance sunday schedules will now be like day routes on weekdays . this means that there will not be combo routes . lextran has hopes that this will improve convenience of service . route 20 masterson station had been very vocal with the possible elimination of their line . 12 masterson station was successful in keeping their bus route including route 17 northside connector . route 16 southland drive was originally poised to run completely down nicholasville road to southland drive ; however it was changed to stop running through commonwealth stadium and travel down southland drive to harrodsburg and around turfland mall . fleet edit details of the current bus fleet year manufacturer model fleet numbers fuel type 2001 gillig phantom 940 942 944 & 948 diesel acquired from sorta in cincinnati oh 2003 thomas slf235 331 350 diesel several units are retired . 2004 gillig low floor 456 461 diesel 2005 gillig low floor 551 555 diesel 2007 gillig low floor 766 782 diesel 2011 gillig trolley 30 32 hybrid 2011 gillig low floor hybrid 790 791 hybrid 35 foot models 2011 gillig low floor 792 796 diesel 29 foot models 2011 ford e 350 cutaway 47 51 diesel used on routes with low ridership 2012 gillig low floor 1201 diesel 2012 gillig low floor 1202 1203 hybrid 2014 gillig low floor 1401 1403 diesel 2016 gillig low floor 1501 1507 cng in service as of 5 9 16 . first cng buses in fleet . 2016 proterra catalyst 40 tba electric 5 buses to arrive soon . ridership per line edit these are statistics gathered from lextran s gfi fareboxes during half of april 2016 and may 2016 . 13 in order from greatest to least with percent of total ridership 14 uk 65 842 16.96 % 15 red mile 49 534 12.51 % 5 nicholasville 34 299 8.83 % 8 versailles road 31 698 8.16 % 3 tates creek road 25 900 6.67 % 7 north limestone 24 771 6.38 % 6 north broadway 22 406 5.77 % 10 hamburg 19 643 5.06 % 9 eastland 18 790 4.95 % 4 newtown 18 646 4.80 % 1 woodhill 16 990 4.38 % 11 richmond 16 717 4.30 % 2 georgetown 14 948 3.85 % 12 leestown road 14 018 3.16 % 13 south broadway 11 442 2.94 % 18 centre parkway 2 925 0.75 % 16 southland drive 2 636 0.68 % 20 masterson station 1 664 0.43 % 21 keeneland airport 1 123 0.29 % 17 northside connector 955 0.25 % 23 nicholasville exp . 904 0.23 % references edit http www.ite.org meetings 2009transops to ite 508 to06 to06b 19.jpg a b c d lextran annual report 2012 2013 . http www.lextran.com about lextran annual report . transit authority of the lexington fayette urban county government . external link in website help ; 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