Homeless resident tells KTA board of repeated breakdowns, missed stops and lost belongings; staff offers to follow up

During public comment, Renee Christian, who identified herself as homeless in Knoxville, recounted multiple service problems she said she has experienced on the transit system, including buses breaking down with no radiator fluid, damaged bikes from loose bike racks, long waits for driver exchanges because of fumes, electric buses that were not charged and buses idling for ‘‘up to 10 minutes, sometimes 12 minutes.’’

Christian said drivers have passed her up repeatedly — ‘‘I’ve been passed up 6 times in the last couple of months’’ — and described a recent night when multiple scheduled buses failed to pass her stop. She said she waited at Cumberland and Market from 10:30 p.m. to 10:55 p.m. for buses that did not arrive and that the last bus at 11:15 p.m. does not finish its route, leaving riders in unsafe conditions near an interstate area.

She also said she lost a backpack containing her ‘‘survival gear’’ and court documents after boarding a late bus and that customer service could not confirm whether her pack was at the garage, saying she was told to wait until Monday for follow-up. ‘‘My backpack is my survival gear. Everything that I have is in that pack,’’ she said.

Board members and staff responded that CAT staff would speak to her after the meeting to try to address complaint procedures and follow up on her specific incidents.

Next steps: staff offered to meet with Christian after the meeting to gather details and pursue any possible retrieval or complaint resolution; commissioners did not take formal action during the meeting.