The story
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 and 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. 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. It offers carpooling and vanpooling computer ridematching services and LexVan, a work commute vanpool leasing program.
In 2003–2004 Lextran bought 13 low-floor 35-foot Thomas 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. 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. 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 Downtown Transit Center. Additionally, 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. Even though trolley service is limited to specific events, 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-foot buses to be used on lower ridership routes.
Between 2012 and 2014, Lextran purchased an additional 6 Gillig 40-foot buses
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In 2016, the bus fleet will increase from 73 as of January 2016 to 76 with 5 new Proterra electric buses and 7 new Gillig CNG buses, with 9 of Lextran's oldest Thomas transit buses similar to the European Dennis Dart being retired. In addition, the new Lextran depot is 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 on-site 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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lextran, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4