Metro News Release

For immediate release: December 21, 2006

Metro Approves $6 million in Improvements for MetroAccess

Authority to offer door-to-door service

Metro’s Board today approved more than $6 million in improvements for its MetroAccess service, including switching from a curb-to-curb to door-to-door service.

A one-time federal grant will pay for 65 vehicles, training, a Web-based regional clearinghouse for paratransit information, seven positions for added oversight of the passenger vehicle service for the elderly and people with disabilities and expand the customer call recording system. Funding also will go toward buying larger passenger vehicles to provide group rides more efficiently and to secure consultant guidance to develop procedures to further strengthen oversight, improve the passenger eligibility process, and investigate dividing the area into service sectors.

As part of moving to a door-to-door service beginning in the summer of 2007, drivers will wait up to five minutes for a passenger then escort them from a building entrance to a MetroAccess vehicle. Drivers currently wait up to 10 minutes after a scheduled pick-up time to meet a passenger at the curb of a pick-up location.

“Door-to-door operations will improve the quality of service to the rider as well as the performance of the system. This change in policy will allow us to connect more reliably with our riders.” said Steven Yaffe, Community Transportation Services Chief Operating Officer.

There are currently 400 vehicles used for MetroAccess service, including vehicles contracted from other companies. Door-to-door service could begin in about six months, once the additional vehicles arrive, Yaffe said.

The changes are part of the MetroAccess Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendations to improve the service for the almost 17,000 people who qualify for it. Since then, managers have stepped up training of drivers and changed the late cancellation policy.

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News release issued on December 21, 2006.