BATON ROUGE – CATS is canceling its Touchdown Express for the remaining LSU football games, the agency announced Wednesday.

CATS said that it will focus on maintaining its regular service with as little interruption as possible while continuing to recover from last month's flood.

"The decision to cancel Touchdown Express for the remainder of the season was not one we hoped to make, but it is one that is responsible to our riders who rely on us every day," said CATS CEO Bill Deville. "Our focus right now is on reducing the number of cancellations on our regular routes, which requires us to focus all of our resources there," Deville said.

Deville said that CATS assisted with 7,000 evacuations and shelter operations at Celtic Media Center. He also said that the agency must allow members the appropriate time off to handle their own rebuilding.

CATS has restored service to most of its routes, but the reduced CATS workforce, coupled with strained equipment, has resulted in the cancellation of a higher than average number of trips. A few improvements will help CATS reduce its cancellations, including:
 
- New operators coming on board through CATS training, which begins in October
- Acquiring new buses, including four in September and another eight by the end of the year
- Cutting the Red Stick Trolley route, pending Metro Council approval in October, which will allow CATS to reallocate resources to more popular routes.