Kendall Area Transit, the public transportation provider, will mark 12 years of service this year. The non-profit service provider has seen many challenges through the years, but none more so than in the past two years.
Kendall Area Transit (KAT) was founded March 22, 2010, through a cooperative effort of the Kendall County Board, municipalities, and Voluntary Action Center of DeKalb County. These municipalities included the city of Joliet, Village of Montgomery, Village of Newark, Village of Oswego, City of Plano, Village of Plainfield, village of Plattville, city of Sandwich, and the united city of Yorkville. All seek to provide excellent and reliable general transportation, Paratransit services, and medical transport services for residents of Kendall County to locations throughout Kendall County and to provide medical and health-based offices outside of Kendall County. Office hours for scheduling are weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and bus services are available weekdays from 6 a.m. through 7 p.m. with the last scheduled reservation at 6:30 p.m. The one-way fare is $3. curb-to-curb.
Many think KAT serves just the elderly, but a large portion of riders have used KAT to have access employment and education throughout the years. KAT had seen an ever-increasing number of riders each year until the pandemic. KAT does give priority to seniors and those with disabilities in scheduling rides.
Plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary were squashed by the “Shelter in Place” announced at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We hoped to pronounce a Kendall Area Transit Day March 22, 2020,” commented Mike Neuenkirchen, COO of Voluntary Action Center. “We wanted to invite the public to a picnic, have an “Open Bus” event and really show off what we have accomplished.” Plans were scrapped due to the pandemic, and in the months to follow the transit company saw more challenges than they could have ever envisioned.
KAT has grown substantially since the first year of service when they offered just 14 rides a day. Ten years later, KAT was averaging 125 rides a day, a 576% increase in service! Demand for service grew through the years from 4,731 rides provided in 2010 to the record 32,008 rides in 2019, their highest ridership to date. In the following fiscal year KAT recorded just 26,044 rides, showing the significant decrease due to the pandemic closures.
As an essential service however, KAT never quit operations from the beginning of the “Shelter in Place” of Spring 2020 to the present. With the additional safety protocols issued by the Federal Transportation Authority, KAT established new guidelines for drivers and passengers including mandating masks, distancing passengers, reducing the number of riders allowed in the vehicles, and new vehicle sanitation guidelines. Administrative staff members did their best to keep drivers employed and to relieve safety concerns of employees and passengers alike. Their efforts have proven successful. “In terms of riders, we are almost halfway to where we were in 2020,” said Diannaha Thompson, program manager. “We are averaging 80-90 riders a day now, compared to last year’s 60-70 riders,” she said.
According to Neuenkirchen, safety is KAT’s utmost concern. They continue to manage the smaller passenger loads, “With the new variants coming, especially Omicron with its incredible speed of transmission, it has not been feasible nor prudent to make changes,” he said.
For those who have yet to discover KAT, visit online at vacdk.com/about-kat or call (877) 446-4528. As a caregiver for my mother, I registered her for KAT services as soon as I could and then learned I could ride along as her companion. It was a great feeling to know that I could expect wheelchair assistance when needed from trained personnel at an economical rate.
Barb Nadeau is the community relations manager for the Voluntary Action Center of Northern Illinois, representing five counties. Barb has worked many years as a professional television and radio host, as well as a print and social media journalist, and as a volunteer coordination professional, networking amongst non-profit social service agencies throughout the State of Illinois. She is a freelance writer and an elected alderperson in the city government of Plano. Contact Barb at bvnadeau@gmail.com.