Metro West Regional Transit Authority - Paratransit

Paratransit

Paratransit service is a flexible passenger transportation service which does not follow fixed routes or schedules. According to ADA requirements, the MWRTA must provide paratransit service as a curb-to-curb service to eligible residents having a physical, cognitive, or mental disability within a 3/4 mile radius of a fixed route regular bus service. In addition, MWRTA paratransit service is also provided to eligible residents within any of its eleven member communities. All MWRTA buses are equipped with lift systems to accommodate the physically handicapped along their regular fixed routes. The MWRTA also provides paratransit service to MWRTA service area border towns at an increased fare. The paratransit service is provided in the form of a call-ahead multi-passenger shuttle allowing disabled residents of MWRTA communities to be picked up at their houses and shuttled to any other location within or bordering the MWRTA service region, such as other residences, grocery stores, hospitals, or job sites.

Prior to the creation of the MWRTA, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) provided part of its paratransit service, called The RIDE (see MBTA accessibility) to the two communities of Framingham and Natick within the current MWRTA service area. The MBTA continue to provide The RIDE to Framingham and Natick until 2009 under contractual obligations. On July 1, 2009, administration of paratransit service to Framingham and Natick switched from the MBTA to MWRTA in alignment with the change in assessments paid to the MWRTA by those communities rather than to the MBTA.