TORONTO — Half of the Toronto Transit Commission’s Wheel-Trans paratransit customers will be riding the conventional system for at least part of their trips by 2025 under a new “cutting edge” plan to integrate paratransit with the bus, streetcar and subway network, The Star reported. That’s when all subway stations and streetcars are supposed to be fully accessible like the buses.

The strategy, being recommended to the TTC board on Thursday, is meant to stem the unsustainable demand and cost of Wheel-Trans, and free some riders from the constraints of advance booking and restrictions on when they travel, the report said.

Wheel-Trans delivers 14,000 trips a day, and an aging population along with broader provincial eligibility rules has increased demand by 29% over the past five years, 12% last year alone. “We sign on about 800 to 900 new customers a month,” TTC Wheel-Trans head Eve Wiggins said. For the full story, click here.