MOUNT VERNON — Knox County Transit will discontinue its Progress Loop three months after starting it.
Despite residents’ calls for transit in the southern part of the city, the Progress Loop pilot program has not seen high ridership.
The loop begins on Columbus Road, incorporates the industrial park, and includes stops on West Gambier Street and the transfer station on South Gay Street.
Transit Director Bethany Celmar said the hope was riders would use the route to get from other parts of town to work.
Celmar said that has not occurred.
“We have decided to shut that down as of May 15 because we just are not seeing any additional riders getting on at the stops. We want to make sure that we are using our resources to the best of the community’ needs,” she said.
“Having a driver that’s on a loop that’s not really being used is not effective.”
Other flex routes are doing well, with 1,497 people riding the routes, Celmar said. As far as on-demand ridership, KCT hit 6,000 trips again in April.
With 20 drivers, 14 full-time and six part-time, KCT averages 3.3 rides per hour. Celmar put that into context by referencing a new trend for rural transit she learned about at a Small Operators summit.
Called microtransit, it focuses on a small area that picks up people from their home and drops them off. The goal is to achieve three to four trips an hour.
“I sat there and I thought, I don’t even need to consider this because we’re already nailing it. We are already there,” Celmar said.
“This is something that other teams are considering and hoping to get to this level of efficiency.”
Lack of drivers leads to denials
However, with only 20 drivers, KCT still has to deny rides. As of April 27, the transit service had 576 denials for April.
Of those, 185 were for employment purposes; 227 were for medical needs.
“The interesting thing is we also get a lot of cancellations, so sometimes it’s better to keep calling and you will find closer to your date that we have availability because somebody else who was holding a spot canceled,” Celmar said.
The agency also does same-day callbacks where dispatchers will call people on a wait list when a cancellation occurs.
“We’re still at only a 10 percent denial rate, which is pretty good. But it kind of illustrates that we know we’re not meeting the entire need of the county,” Celmar said.
Financial pressures deepen
Celmar said KCT’s financial situation is serious.
“At this point, there’s no fat to cut. We’re into the muscle, we’re getting to the bone,” she said. “We’re paying for people, and then the rest of our expenses are gas and a few supplies.
“We really have slimmed it down to where we are putting our resources as much as possible into what we’re doing for the community, and then that’s what that denial rate will depend on.”
Celmar said if KCT gets more funding to hire more drivers, the denial rate will decrease.
Although lack of drivers is the primary reason for denials, the agency denies some rides because riders are in arrears on payment. Riders, or anyone wishing to pay on someone’s behalf, can go online to KCT’s website and pay on an account.
Riders can also preload an amount.
Celmar is still working to get local match revenue to qualify for federal matching funds.
“We’re still running a little bit lower on contract revenue than we should be, or that would be sustainable, and are heavily relying on the county and the city contributions to make that local match to meet that 50%,” she said.
“With some of our contracts, there have been some things that have fallen through or stopped, so we we’ve just been coming in lower than anticipated for this year.”
Celmar said KCT set up an account to receive contributions from the community. Anyone wishing to do so can contact Celmar at 740-392-7026 option 2 or email bethanycelmar@knoxcountytransit.com.
