Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

The company, which manufactured the MV-1 accessible vehicle, had a $50 million Department of Energy loan.

Riverside Transit Agency’s travel training program is effectively steering a growing number of customers away from its costly Dial-A-Ride service as well as saving the agency money along the way.

Ryan Larsen recently served as president of Ecolane, an innovative web-based software for managing paratransit. His previous roles include president and founder of Local Motion ITS Inc., and VP at DynTek.

The contracts provide a new approach for determining when a paratransit vehicle is “late," as the contractor managing the scheduling and dispatching functions will share performance incentives and disincentives with the contractors delivering the service to customers.

Nearly 90% of rides have been on time in January, about 97% of phone calls on the reservation line have been answered within three minutes and more than 91% of calls to the “Where’s My Ride?” line met the three-minute standard

A continuing shortage of bus drivers has forced EZ-RIDER, the public transportation provider in Midland and Odessa, Texas, to partner with a local taxi company to provide service to its paratransit riders.

MV will provide shuttle and limited dial-a-ride transportation service to seniors and individuals with disabilities in the Salem-Keizer Urban Growth Boundaries.

About 4% of the agency's riders use Dial-A-Ride, but the service consumes 18% of the agency’s budget.

The conference, sponsored by the Association of Travel Instruction, is recommended for travel trainers, mobility managers and other persons interested in greater use of public transit by all disabled individuals and seniors.

Replacing the 15-bus paratransit fleet is expected to cost $1.2 million — an amount already set aside in Topeka Metro’s capital outlay budget for this fiscal year.