CARTA, which has been dealing with a decline in ridership, had a six percent spike in riders in April.
Lisa Maragnano, executive director, said overall ridership for the month was 233,899 - up from 221,009 in April of last year.
CARTA overall ridership, however, still is down from 2,306,044 to 2,170,504 for the fiscal year to date.
There was a surge in ridership on the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway, which is a big revenue producer for the public transit agency.Officials said 47,990 rode the Incline in April - up from 43,810 the previous April. That brought $66,000 in extra revenue to CARTA.
Transit ridership was up from 117,386 to 126,463.
The free Downtown Shuttle was a little down - from 55,520 to 54,550.
Care-A-Van service to those with disabilities was up from 4,293 to 4,869.
The North Shore Shuttle had 6,199 riders for the month - ahead of the previous 6,156.
Mocs Express remains way off, dropping in April from 8,445 to 6,199. Overall the CARTA service for the UTC campus has dropped from 105,076 to 68,734 for the fiscal year to date.
Passenger fare revenues were over budget by $9,000 due to increased ridership. However, CARTA only gets about 11 percent of its revenues from the riders.
Parking revenues were over budget because of increased enforcement ($20,000), meters ($26,000), Renaissance lot ($2,000) and Riverfront lot ($3,000).
Ms. Maragnano reminded board members that starting July 1 Tennessee becomes a "hands free" state as far as use of cell phones while driving a vehicle. A board member noted that is not a problem for a CARTA rider.
She said CARTA is coming up with guidelines for evaluating whether there is enough activity for an additional bus stop.
The director also said the Urban Design Studio is working with CARTA to enliven some of the downtown bus stops. She said three summer interns are coming up with ideas "that should make the bus stops more pleasant places."
Ms. Maragnano said CARTA is working with the county schools on possibly providing some transportation to students who want to go out of zone to attend one of the new Future Ready Institutes.