Paul Ballard, CEO of the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), received a transportation award for exceptional leadership in providing Nashville with an accessible transit system at the 30th annual Awards for Artists with Disabilities held at the Farmers Market on Oct. 17.
Under Ballard, MTA’s bus ridership has increased from 6.4 million annual passenger trips to a high of 9.4 million passenger trips and more than 175 new accessible buses and vans have been added to the fleet during his tenure. The fleet is now fully accessible.
MTA’s AccessRide program for people with disabilities is the largest of Tennessee’s public transit systems with more than 340,000 passenger trips recorded last fiscal year. This program covers practically all of Metro-Nashville Davidson County.
Ballard has served as the MTA CEO since January 2002. In December 2008 he became the CEO of the Regional Transportation Authority, which manages the Music City Star and regional bus services to surrounding Middle Tennessee counties.