Paratransit users are one step closer to getting on-demand service.
Timmins Transit is partnering with Spare, a Vancouver-based company that provides mobility services, to create an on-demand service for paratransit users in the city.
“It’s been a long time coming, but finally, we’ve selected a partner to go on this adventure of ours of the new wave of paratransit in Timmins,” said transit operations manager Marcel Côté at the Oct. 16 Municipal Accessibility Accommodations Committee meeting.
“We are in the middle of talks with Spare to finalize the agreement, and once that is done, we will start training staff and marketing as well as getting the apps designed.”
Timmins council approved the five-year, $277,620 contract earlier this month. For each year of the term, the cost is $55,524.
Spare will provide training and software for the on-demand application, and they will be consulted on the marketing for the new program.
“They’re going to be here to help us through and there’s a lot of dry runs, some mock-pilots before we release to the public to make sure there are no major hiccups,” said Côté.
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The on-demand program will allow Handy Transit users to book a ride up to an hour ahead of time, giving users more flexibility. The current system requires trips to be booked two weeks ahead of time.
Users will be able to book through an app or through the dispatch service that is already in use.
“I can go and get in my vehicle right now and go to Walmart right now if I want, but there are people in our community that have to say, ‘I’d like to go to Walmart on Nov. 2,’ and that makes no sense to me,” said Coun. Bill Gvozdanovic. “So this is excellent news, great work done by the committee.”
The program could start by the end of the year or early 2024.
“It’s a 10 to 12-week process in order to get everybody trained and everything in place,” said Côté. “It all depends on how long it takes to get the agreement ironed out.”
The contract with Spare is for a five-year term and could be extended, said Côté.
“We’ll be partnered with Spare for the next five years, and hopefully many years moving forward as long as the service level is there and it’s working well for us,” Côté said.
Côté says the on-demand service for paratransit users is the first phase of on-demand transit in Timmins.
“We’re also going to launch a pilot in South Porcupine for micro-transit,” he said. “This is going to be more efficient from an operational perspective, so instead of having a bus driving around South Porcupine empty, we’ll have a bus idle, waiting for a call that will pick them up to bring them to a mainline stop.”
The micro-transit services will be available to all transit users.
The paratransit buses will be wrapped to inform people of the service before the implementation.
MAAC has provided $37,500 in funding for those bus wraps.
“The monies that were awarded to us for advertising will be used to promote the Spare brand and the partnership with Timmins Transit to get people excited and ready to jump on board when we launch,” said Côté.
Gvozdanovic said he hopes people will give the app a chance.
“I think that we have to be patient. There’s going to be glitches at first,” he said. “We just have to weather the storm and make this a reality.”
