New York Looks Expand E-Hail Paratransit Program

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board voted to approve the next phase of its E-Hail Pilot Program scheduled to begin on July 1, which will apply lessons from Phase 1 and Phase 2 to further improve the program.

E-Hail is an on-demand service that offers participating Access-A-Ride (AAR) customers the opportunity to book trips in real-time through five taxi or for-hire vehicle services. The program was created to serve as a transportation option beyond the MTA’s existing paratransit service, which continues to reach historic highs in ridership and performance.

Phase 3 of MTA’s E-Hail Program

Phase 3 of this program will start with the 1,600 customers currently in Phase 2 and increase the per-trip subsidy to $60 per e-hail trip. The up-front customer co-pay for each program is $4 and will be fully applied to the cost of the trip, allowing customers to take up to a $64 trip before paying any additional cost.

Increasing the per trip subsidy will enable customers to travel to more destinations with e-hail and potentially yield efficiencies and improved customer satisfaction.

In Phase 3, customers will be sorted into two groups based on their e-hail and traditional AAR usage: a group with up to 25 subsidized e-hail trips per month and a group with 40 subsidized e-hail trips per month. For all customers, Access-A-Ride will continue to provide service with no monthly limits or per trip costs beyond the $2.90 fare.

“The latest E-Hail pilot program improves on the previous iteration of E-Hail, particularly for customers traveling far distances between boroughs,” said MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo. “E-Hail Phase 3 will allow us to better evaluate how Paratransit customers choose between different trip options and builds off the major progress we have made with on-time performance and customer satisfaction across the entire Paratransit system.”

E-hail trips will continue to be provided by Uber, Arro, Corporate Transportation Group, Lyft, and the Drivers Cooperative.

Previous E-Hail Phases, Future Improvements

Phase 2, which began in fall 2023, demonstrated that e-hail could continue to provide value for customers while reining in the unsustainable costs seen in Phase 1.

The monthly subsidy allocations implemented last August reduced e-hail costs by more than 50% per participant and enabled the MTA to expand the benefits to more customers. The approach reflects best practices with respect to premium on-demand services for paratransit eligible customers offered by other transportation providers including San Francisco, Boston, and Las Vegas.

In August, the MTA will evaluate the budget impacts of Phase 3 and invite up to an additional 800 customers to join this phase, provided costs stay within projected estimates.

Expansion and Demand

The e-hail expansion comes in the context of historically high demand and performance on traditional AAR service.

Earlier this year, Access-A-Ride set an all-time record for booked trips for a seven-day period. Between March 8 and March 14, Access-A-Ride recorded a record 213,512 booked trips. The record high included 36,469 booked trips for Wednesday, March 13 alone.

The booked trips high builds on a strong 2023 in which Access-A-Ride saw on-time performance at an all-time high and wait times plummet. Booked trips on an average weekday have increased from 31,500 per day to 33,800 per day in March.

Customer satisfaction remains high even as ridership continues to exceed pre-COVID levels, with 90% of trips in the 20-minute on-time performance window, set last year to exceed Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

Customers are also continuing to leverage the MyAAR platform to book and track their trips, improving customer experience with thousands of trips booked by the app each day.