As president of New York City Transit, I am committed to ensuring all our riders, whether they take the subway, bus or our paratransit service Access-A-Ride are provided safe, reliable and efficient service. Because at its heart, transit is a connector – of people with each other and with this beautiful city. Our customer base is diverse with a wide range of needs. Nowhere is this more apparent than when serving people with disabilities.
While we talk a lot about growing our network of reliable subway elevators – we’re opening new elevators five times faster than ever before – I also want to highlight how our Paratransit service is delivering for seniors and those with disabilities.
Last Wednesday, Paratransit achieved record ridership with more than 47,000 trips scheduled – that’s more than Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC’s paratransit ridership combined. Paratransit not only connects customers with family, friends and medical appointments, but also with work and education. In fact, 30% of Paratransit riders say they use it to get to jobs or school.
We are rolling out new tools like the MY AAR app and OMNY cards to make booking, tracking, and paying for trips easier than ever before. Every Paratransit customer now either has an OMNY card in hand or has one on the way. Tap and ride will make it more convenient for riders to seamlessly access the transit system – both for Paratransit and fixed-route trips. No longer will they have to carry exact change when boarding or a separate MetroCard for the times they use the bus or subway. These tools empower customers to travel more independently and with greater ease.
Service reliability is better than ever before, with all performance indicators regularly exceeding goals. Well over 94% of pickups are made within a 30-minute window, but the service now holds itself to a higher standard of making pickups within a 20-minute window to give riders more of their time back – and hits that mark on 90% of all trips.
In survey after survey customer satisfaction now reaches 80%. With impressive on-time performance numbers and user-friendly tools, my colleagues and I are proud, but not surprised, that Paratransit ridership is as high as its reliability and those ratings.
