Has provided management for this contract since 2003, supporting and working closely with the Lextran board of directors and employees to achieve many significant milestones.
Transdev will continue the management of Lexington, Ky.’s Lextran transit service. The 21-route system is a vital source of mobility for Lexington citizens and students at the University of Kentucky (UK), providing four million passenger trips per year.
Transdev has provided management for this contract since 2003, supporting and working closely with the Lextran board of directors and employees to achieve many significant milestones. Together, they planned and opened a new nearly 14-acre, state-of-the-art maintenance and office facility last spring. The new facility has improved reliability of the fleet of 65 buses and 49 paratransit vehicles, increasing the number of fully-equipped maintenance bays from two to seven. The additional maintenance capacity has reduced vehicle downtime and improved service reliability and system efficiency for customers.
Lextran’s popular BluPass partnership with the UK will also continue until at least 2019. The program allows UK students, faculty, and staff to ride any Lextran route free of charge, simply by showing their valid university identification card. Since service started in 2015 the program has provided more than one million rides to students and staff.
Along with BluePass and the opening of the LEED-certified headquarter building last year, other major accomplishments of the board, employees, and Transdev team include winning environmental grants to achieve their goal of reducing carbon emissions. The transit agency secured a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality grant for the purchase of three CNG buses and earned another $6 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration to deploy five new fully-electric Proterra vehicles that will begin revenue service in early 2017.
The region’s fixed-route system finished out the year with a total of 373.5 million rides. Adding 12.3 million rides over 2024 represents an increase that is equal to the annual transit ridership of Kansas City.
The service is a flexible, reservation-based transit service designed to close the first- and last-mile gaps and connect riders to employment for just $5 per day.
The upgraded system, which went live earlier this month, supports METRO’s METRONow vision to enhance the customer experience, improve service reliability, and strengthen long-term regional mobility.
The agreement provides competitive wages and reflects strong labor-management collaboration, positive working relationships, and a shared commitment to building a world-class transit system for the community, said RTA CEO Lona Edwards Hankins.
The priorities are outlined in the 2026 Board and CEO Initiatives and Action Plan, which serves as a roadmap to guide the agency’s work throughout the year and ensure continued progress and accountability on voter-approved transportation investments and essential mobility services.