Knoxville has drowned in traffic long enough.  Traffic on I40, already the busiest and most deadly stretches of interstate in Tennessee, gets more and congested every day.  The people of the Knoxville Metro area deserve better than sitting in hours of traffic each day, sacrificing productivity, health, and happiness. It is time for Knoxville to step up and implement a permanent, sustainable, reliable light rail system to service the I40 and I75 corridor. Commuter lines that stretch from Knoxville to Alcoa, Farragut, Oak Ridge, and Sevierville could enable accessibility of services to hundreds of thousands of residents in need, reduce highway traffic, ease pollution, and alleviate traffic-related deaths and injuries. 

 

 

Concept illustration of a commuter rail on I40 near Exit 379

In 2019, Knoxville came close to achieving a commuter line from Knoxville to Alcoa, which would have greatly increased the accessibility to the Knoxville airport.  Since then, Knoxville has only continued to grow without bound. Navigating the metro area becomes less savory and more dangerous every day, but have yet to see any substantial initiative from Knoxville's to attempt to address the issue. 

 

This petition is to implore Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon to do something about this intractable problem. Knoxville, more than ever, needs the city to proactively address this problem before it gets even more out of hand.

We want Knoxville to secure funding for KAT to perform a diligent survey for a Knoxville-Farragut-Oak Ridge commuter rail line and possible usage of existing corridors for local light rail lines within the city, similar to what is shown below.

 

 

 

 
An illustration of historic railcars brought back to Downtown Knoxville