There has been a lot of confusion about Louisville's official status in the High Speed Rail push. When the President stands in front of a map showing a Louisville to Indy HSR link, people naturally ask why they haven't heard anything about it. CART president Ron Schneider made this post to the CART board, trying to clear up the confusion:

Folks:

Here are two maps, one from the midwest high speed rail associaton (MHSRA) and the other from the Federal Railroad Administration.  They show planned high speed rail corridors in the midwest and federally designated high speed rail corridors, respectively.  Both of these include a line from Indianapolis to Louisville, not for bus service, but for high speed rail service.  The service may not be as fast as the other lines in the MHSRA grid, but a speed of 90-110 mph cannot legally reached by a bus:

TARC's new clean diesel buses have hit the streets with a new silver-swooshy paint job. Yours truly has bicycled in their exhaust stream and while I'm not seeking out that space, they do indeed beat the fumes of your typical older TARC bus. They're the cleanest diesels engines you're likely to draft in everyday life, that's for sure.

Though the new grey-based graphic design reminds us a bit of Louisville's other major passenger bus system ...

In addition to the previous service mentioned to Ashland, Paintsville and Hazard from Lexington. Greyhound lines operated from Ashland to Pikeville via US 23 buses originated at Columbus Ohio stops in Kentucky included Cattletsburg, Louisa , Paintsville, Prestonsbrg, Allen and Pikeville.

In addition to Greyhound Pikeville was served  by Trailways with routes to Jenkins Kentucky and beyond with stops in Shelby, Indian Creek, Virgie, and Dorton, in Kentucky the route also went north to Williamson WV and Huntington and a another route operated to Millard Belcher and Mouth Card en route to Grundy , VA

In Ashland Trailways operated a route to Cincinnati which served Vanceburg, Maysville, Augusta and Covington

And Bristol - Jenkins Bus Lines offered service to Appalachian Virginia from  Harlan , Middlesboro and Jenkins and operated to Pineville from Harlan serving Blackmont and Wallins in Kentucky

Other services were operated from Albany , KY to Chattanooga by CC Bus Lines Inc.

Southeastern Greyhound in Western Kentucky operated service between Evansville and Nashville, Paducah to Memphis, Evansville to Paducah.  These routes were complemented by Trailways, Brooks Bus Lines at Paducah, Tennessee Trailblazers at Owensboro, Audubon Trails provided bus service from Owensboro to Indianapolis, and the Evansville and Owensboro provided service on the Indiana Side of the river between those cities. Hopkinsville was served by Greyhound Lines, Brooks Bus Lines and Tennessee Trailblazers.  Gulf Transport Company provided service to extreme western Kentucky.

Greyhound - Evansville to Nashville served Henderson, Madisonville, Hopkinsville, Fort Campbell in Kentucky Clarksville and Nashville in Tennessee with four buses a day. In addition Greyhound Lines operated local service between Hopkinsville, Fort Campbell and Nashville.

Greyhounds route from Evansville to Paducah served Henderson, Corydon, Camp Breckenridge, Morganfield,Sturgis, Marion, Salem, Burma and Smithland.

Greyhounds Paducah to Memphis route operated to Mayfield , Fulton in Kentucky to Union City and Dyersburg in Tennessee.

Southeastern Greyhound Lines operated many routes in addition to the ones mentioned in part one from the Lexington, KY bus station located at Short and Sycamore in Downtown Lexington.

The primary north to south routes operated via I -75 and US 25 to Cincinnati and Knoxville stops included Richmond, Berea,Renfro Valley, Mt. Vernon, Livingston, London, Corbin, Barbourville,Pineville, Middlesboro,in Kentucky and Haragate, Tazewell, Maynardville, and also via Williamsburg and Jellico on certian runs, towards Cincinnati the bus stopped at Williamstown, Georgetown and Covington

Other Lexington routes included Lexington - Somerset - Chattanooga with stops in  Harrodsburg, Danville, Stanford, Somerset, Whitley City in Kentucky and Oneida, Wartburg, Hariman, Rockwood, Spring City and Dayton in Tennessee

Another route operated via Paris to Cincinnati and Maysville, Greyhound offered a commuter schedule between Mt Sterling and Lexington.

It has only been only a few decades ago when Southeastern Greyhound Lines served nearly all of Kentucky. Before its consolidation in to Southern Greyhound Lines  in 1954. Southeastern Greyhound Lines was headquartered in Lexington, KY above the old Greyhound Station located on Short Street ( which is still standing)

Started in 1929 its routes radiated all over the South and connected with other Greyhound Carriers like Atlantic Greyhound which was based in Charleston, West Virginia, Dixie Greyhound Lines based in Memphis, Teche Greyhound Lines based in New Orleans

During the early years Greyhound was managed on a regional basis with the local management making the decisions on where the buses operated and how often. And during the 1930's, 1940,s a system of routes were established which lasted un till the mid 1980's.

More after the jump...

Since the early 2000s there has been no transit service linking Kentucky from East to West. It is not possible, for example, to go from Louisville to Frankfort.

If Miller Trailways has anything to say about it, that is going to change. However, they need your letters of support to make it happen!

Greyhound abandoned the last East-West service because it wasn't profitable. Congress decided that it wasn't a good idea to orphan all those small communities without any inter city transit, so they created 5311-f funds to subsidize rural intercity transit. Kentucky gets $1.8 million worth of funds, and currently doesn't subsidize any inter-city bus transit of note. Instead, that money is marked as unspent and flows into a larger pot where it is used to subsidize rural on-demand transit services - basically taxis, running with an end-user fare of about $1 per mile.

The time to contribute money to transit is now. We can take a major step towards improved regional transportation around Louisville. Through the tireless efforts of Metro Council, KIRA, and CART, we are very close to operating two exciting demonstrations:

1. An "inspection train" on the Paducah & Louisville track, going from downtown Louisville out to Elizabethtown KY, a model of what a commuter rail line could look like on that corridor.
2. A city-to-city bus ride back to Louisville aboard a Miller Transportation's bus, a model for a better way of connecting Kentucky's cities.

Click Read More for how to contribute!

Greyhound is considering restoring service between Louisville and Lexington. Greyhound spokesperson Tim Gardiner says the major obstacle to Greyhound service right now is a lack of buses. In the fall, if they have more buses, they will consider that route.

Currently, to get between the two cities requires a time-consuming transfer in Cincinnati.

Hat tip to John Owen for the heads up.