York Region Transit Mobility Plus Explained

York Region Transit Mobility Plus, or Mobility Plus, is a paratransit service operated by York Region Transit (YRT) in York Region, Ontario, Canada, for the disabled using specially equipped minibuses.

History

Mobility Plus was created in 2001 following the merger of the various transit agencies in York Region into YRT. Most of the mobility system was inherited from Vaughan Transit and Markham Transit (Mobility Bus and Taxi Scrip), who operated similar systems since the 1980s.

Services

YRT Mobility Plus operates in a similar manner to the Toronto Transit Commission's (TTC) Wheel-Trans service and makes connections to other operators in Greater Toronto such as the TTC, Brampton Transit, Miway (Mississauga), Durham Region Transit, and GO Transit.

Fixed routes are the Community Bus routes, a concept borrowed from the Toronto Transit Commission's Wheel-Trans community routes:

York Region Mobility Bus can operate service to and within Toronto bounded by Toronto-Mississauga boundary, Steeles Avenue West, Yonge Street and Highway 401. This is the case due to previous contract by Vaughan Transit.[1]

Fleet

YRT Mobility Plus operates a mix of 60 different vehicles:

Product list and details (information from YRT)[2] !Make/model!Description!Fleet size!Year acquired!Year retired!Notes
Ontario Bus Industries Orion II Custom built wheelchair accessible vehicle61988, 1991, 1997, 1998, 20002003from Newmarket Transit, Vaughan Transit and Markham Transit
Overland Custom Coach Ford ELF (E450 Super Duty Chassis) Custom built wheelchair accessible vehicle162003ActiveSimilar to vehicles used by the TTC
Ford E350 based buses Custom built wheelchair accessible vehicle
Chevrolet Venture vans Custom built wheelchair accessible vehicleOperated by contractors (Dignity Transportation Inc, Royal Taxi, Mobility Transportation Specialists Inc, Wheelchair Accessible Transit Inc and World In Motion Transportation Inc) on behalf of YRT
ElDorado National E-Z Rider II MAXLow floor bus62005ActiveServices Community Bus routes only
Assessible low floor cab22015ActiveInspector vehicles and can be used to transfer Mobility patrons[3]

Denotes wheelchair-accessible vehicles

YRT MP also contracts out services to taxi companies to operate car and minivan based services:

YRT MP also operates an unknown number of Toyota Camry or Chevrolet Impala in the fleet.

Together they provide 29 taxis and 19 minivans to the MP fleet. YRT leased 3 minivans to the contracts to complete the non-bus fleet.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: York Region Transit: Mobility Plus Service Implementation - Educational Institutions. York Region Commissioner of Transportation and Works . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110706221148/http://www.york.ca/NR/rdonlyres/6a5zkpkwljszq645gytat5xyyzpaneg3nt5i5cugafpo2jwuv7v63n2oh7iuixer6goza4pujn4i2spuorubsr2soe/Comm+TW+rpt+4+cls+1.pdf . July 6, 2011 .
  2. Web site: YRT's & viva's Fleet Rosters . https://web.archive.org/web/20110315143417/http://stw.ryerson.ca/~m4yip/transit/yrt/ . March 15, 2011. York Region Transit.
  3. http://mobilityplus.yrt.ca/en/news/resources/MP_News_Spring_2015_web.pdf{{dead link|date=July 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}