Last month, officials from TransPro, the consulting firm leading the Memphis Area Transit Authority, announced two major revelations: prior leadership made route cuts that it concealed from the public for nearly a year, and thousands of dollars in improper purchases had been made on a company credit card.
In the aftermath of those headlines, Deputy CEO Bacarra Mauldin has been fired, and TransPro and the new MATA board have been busy taking several quieter actions to restore and potentially expand service, while making MATA more reliable for riders.
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More buses, more service
TransPro is working to shore up MATA’s neglected fleet, including repairing existing buses and buying new ones, finding money to fund the purchases, and creating a repair schedule.
TransPro’s first goal is to “get vehicles to a state of good repair and create a replacement schedule that is sustainable and ongoing, so that the agency never finds itself in this position ever again,” interim CEO John Lewis told MLK50: Justice Through Journalism in an interview.
Before TransPro came on board, bus repairs were held up because MATA wasn’t paying its vendors. Now, five previously inoperable buses are back on Memphis streets, leaving 13 still needing repairs.
Upcoming MATA board meeting
MATA’s next board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 23 at 3:30 p.m. During the meeting, members of the public can address the board. The meeting will be held in the auditorium on Level C of One Commerce Square at 40 S. Main Street.
Feedback can also be provided to board members by emailing publiccomments@matatransit.com.
Beyond fixing MATA’s existing fleet, TransPro plans to purchase 25 used 40-foot buses from other transit agencies, and 15 new 40-foot buses, which would likely arrive early next year. The new and used buses will position MATA to rebuild previously cut service and have fewer trips missed because of buses breaking down.
The board has already approved the purchase of 15 new paratransit vehicles for MATAPlus, the agency’s rideshare service for people with disabilities.
“In the next couple of months, we’re not going to reach success,” Lewis told MLK50 in an interview at the beginning of his tenure. “But we will have outlined what success looks like.”
Already, riders have seen the impact of TransPro’s involvement. While the MATA Board had previously approved suspending the five lowest ridership routes, the suspension was cancelled last month after Lewis announced it was no longer needed.
The board has also approved TransPro’s plan to gradually rebuild the routes that were secretly cut by the prior administration.
More buses are already back on the road, and MATA will work to restore missing trips on the city’s busiest routes over the next several months. The agency hopes to formally reinstate all trips in July.
Route recommendations, community survey to come
To date, TransPro has worked to improve MATA’s reliability without changing routes, but some riders worry the firm might propose cuts or other service reductions in the future.
“We felt the MATA administration should talk to the riders first,” said Johnnie Mosley, founding chairman of Citizens for Better Service. “It’s been the other way around. By the time proposed route changes got to the ridership, MATA has already redrew the maps, and the ridership have no input … We want a new trend where the ridership and the drivers have an opportunity to express themselves on how the routes will be redesigned.”
Riders should not expect to see routes eliminated or changed drastically, Lewis said, pushing back on the term “redesign.” Rather, TransPro and the board are seeking to add more frequent service to existing routes, something riders have requested.
“We’re not going to change the entire system,” Lewis said. “What we want to do is redeploy vehicles. Our goal, based on what we’re recommending to the board today, is how do we redeploy assets? How do we get back to that 70-bus deployment of vehicles based on the schedule that was promised to the public before those cuts were made? And then how do we supplement that with additional service?”
TransPro is planning a community survey in August to give riders a chance to provide feedback once “some level of service” has been restored. The survey will look at overall satisfaction and help TransPro see how riders’ opinions have changed since they stepped into the interim leadership role.
TransPro is also working to present operating and capital budgets for fiscal year 2026, which will have to be approved by the MATA Board and the city of Memphis.
The firm’s other top priorities include working through a lengthy process to reinstate trolley service and finding candidates for the role of chief financial officer, which has been vacant for about two years. The previous board, which was replaced in its entirety by Memphis Mayor Paul Young last October, didn’t pass a budget for the current fiscal year until the year was already well underway.
A financial audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers also started in February and is expected to conclude in May or June.
While some positive changes have been made, riders and their advocates await further decisions to see whether the transit authority can be transformed into an agency that actually serves the people of Memphis.
“I’m still kind of a little skeptical,” said Sammie Hunter, co-chairman of the Memphis Bus Riders Union. “I want to see improvement. This has been going on so long. When you see some improvement, you’ll say ‘Hey, they’re doing the right thing, they’re going in the right direction.’”
Katherine Burgess is the government accountability reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at katherine.burgess@mlk50.com
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