York Region Transit Mobility Plus
York Region Transit Mobility Plus is a program that offers transit services, known as Mobility Plus, to the disabled using specially equipped buses. Mobility Plus is York Region's equivalent of the Toronto Transit Commission's Wheel-Trans service.
History
YRT Mobility Plus was created in 2001 following the merger of the various transit agencies in York Region. Most of the mobility system was inherited from Vaughan Transit and Markham Transit (Mobility Bus and Taxi Scrip), whom operated similar systems since the 1980s.
Services
YRT Mobility Plus operates similarly to Wheel-Trans and makes connections to other operators in Toronto, GO Transit, Mississauga Transit, Brampton Transit, and Durham Region Transit.
Fixed routes are the Community Bus routes, a concept borrowed from the Toronto Transit Commission's Wheel-Trans community routes:
- 520/521 Newmarket Community Bus
- 522 Markham Community Bus
- 589/590 Richmond Hill Community Bus
York Region Mobility Bus can operate service to and within Toronto bounded by Toronto-Peel boundaries, 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:
| Make/Model | Description | Fleet size | Year acquired | Year retired | Notes |
Ontario Bus Industries Orion II  |
custom built wheelchair accessible vehicle | 6 | 1988, 1991, 1997, 1998, 2000 | 2003 | from Newmarket Transit, Vaughan Transit and Markham Transit |
| Overland Custom Coach Ford ELF (E450 Super Duty Chassis) |
custom built wheelchair accessible vehicle | 16 | 2003 | Active | Similar to vehicles used by the TTC |
| Ford E350 based buses |
custom built wheelchair accessible vehicle | ||||
| Chervolet Venture vans |
custom built wheelchair accessible vehicle | operated 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 MAX | Low floor bus | 6 | 2005 | Active | Services Community Bus routes only |
| Vehicle Production Group MV-1 |
Assessible low floor cab | 2 | 2015 | Active | Inspector vehicles and can be used to transfer Mobility patrons[2] |
- Denotes wheelchair-accessible vehicles
YRT MP also contracts out services to taxi companies to operate car and minivan based services:
- Royal Taxi
- Mobility Transportation Services
- Scarborough City Cab
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
References
- ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 6, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
- ↑ http://mobilityplus.yrt.ca/en/news/resources/MP_News_Spring_2015_web.pdf[]