Entry-A-Trip Paratransit, MTA’s service for seniors and other people with disabilities, is breaking ridership and efficiency data, and with Incapacity Satisfaction Month simply getting began, there’s no higher time to highlight its success.
Marc A. Hermann / MTA
The previous couple of years have made clear that accessibility isn’t a aspect challenge on the MTA – it’s central to how we take into consideration serving New Yorkers.
We’ve opened subway elevators and ramps at a document tempo and dedicated $7.1 billion within the historic 2025-2029 MTA Capital Plan to make much more stations accessible. And we’ve expanded the open stroller bus program to make journey simpler for households whereas making certain riders with disabilities proceed to have the house they want.
However maybe nowhere is that dedication extra evident than in our Entry-A-Trip paratransit service. For too lengthy, the system didn’t get the eye it deserved. That’s modified. In recent times, we’ve made Entry-A-Trip a precedence — not simply throughout the MTA, however for the tens of 1000’s of New Yorkers who depend on it day-after-day.
4 hundred new vans have been added to our fleet, making service extra dependable and rides extra comfy. We utterly rebuilt the net reserving expertise and cell app, giving prospects a sooner, less complicated, and extra impartial strategy to schedule and observe journeys. And we’ve distributed almost 200,000 OMNY playing cards to Entry-A-Trip prospects, making it simpler to pay for paratransit and make seamless transfers to buses and the more and more accessible subway system.
These investments are paying off. In 2025, Entry-A-Trip achieved greater than 95% on-time efficiency whereas carrying extra riders than ever earlier than. A million journeys a month is the brand new regular, almost doubling pre-COVID numbers, and buyer surveys routinely present that the overwhelming majority of customers are glad with their final journey. Fifty p.c say they’re “very satisfied.”
That’s to not say we’re getting complacent. We proceed to boost the usual for on-time efficiency, narrowing the window to simply 20 minutes. Our crew can also be working to switch the scheduling and dispatch system with a cloud-based platform that may higher help the rising demand for paratransit within the years forward.
However accessibility on the MTA isn’t about steering riders in the direction of one possibility over one other. Our job is to provide individuals the liberty to decide on what service works greatest for them on any given day. So, we’re thrilled to see that as paratransit ridership has grown, so has subway and bus ridership amongst these similar prospects and Decreased Fare OMNY cardholders.
The MTA is right here to attach New Yorkers to alternative, and that mission contains everybody. I’m proud to be a part of a management crew that has made accessibility a precedence and look ahead to constructing on that success.
Rachel Cohen is Senior Vice President of Paratransit at MTA New York Metropolis Transit.
