New York's Paratransit Ridership, On-Time Performance Up in '23

The MTA recently abandoned the industry standard of a 30-minute on time window and adopted the more customer friendly 20 minutes. Even with the smaller window, on-time performance consistently exceeded 90%.

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February 27, 2024

New York's Paratransit Ridership, On-Time Performance Up in '23 — Customer satisfaction on New York MTA's Access-A-Ride hit a record high of 79% in January 2024 as ridership grew 12.4% compared to January 2023, with most days above pre-COVID levels.
Photo: Marc A. Hermann

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The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Access-A-Ride paratransit service had a record-breaking year in 2023 with increased ridership, highs in customer satisfaction, improved on time performance, and fewer no shows on both primary and broker trips.

“The ability to use mass transit is something that every New Yorker and every visitor to New York deserves and I am so proud to show off the amazing progress that the MTA Paratransit team made in 2023,” said MTA New York City Transit VP, Paratransit, Chris Pangilinan. “We have created a more customer friendly experience by improving on-time performance, reducing vendor no-shows, and reducing phone wait times, all while keeping the per-trip costs of a ride flat.

MTA’s Paratransit Updates

The agency abandoned the industry standard of a 30-minute on time window and adopted the more customer friendly 20 minutes. Even with the smaller window, on-time performance consistently exceeded 90%.

Customer satisfaction hit a record high of 79% in January 2024 as ridership grew 12.4% compared to January 2023, with most days above pre-COVID levels. Provider no-show rates were down by 20.4% on primary carrier trips and 77.3% on broker trips.

Booking paratransit trips was also faster and easier in 2023 with call talk times down 22% from more than six minutes to under five making it much easier to get a trip reservation.

Between July 2023 and January 2024 MTA Paratransit cut its call answer times from 50 seconds down to 15.

Additional Access-A-Ride Updates

In October, 20 new Ford E-450 vans joined the Access-A-Ride fleet including one van testing a new wheelchair securement system, which includes an improved yellow visual design to quickly and safely strap in wheelchairs, another step toward modernizing the system and making it more customer friendly.

In 2024 MTA Paratransit aims to keep the positive momentum from 2023 going by:

Achieving and maintaining 94% on time performance with a 20-minute window.
Exceeding a 95% rate of booking calls answered within 60 seconds.
Expanding our E-Hail Pilot to Phase 3.
MyAAR and web booking usage to 25% of all reservations.
Implementing a new Paratransit Scheduling Engine to speed up the booking process.
Opening a Manhattan assessment center.
Initiating new model broker contract.
Revamping the Taxi Authorization program.