SEPTA partners with RideCo to adapt agency's paratransit and microtransit services
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is partnering with RideCo to adapt the agency's paratransit and microtransit services. This will be the largest on-demand transit system in the U.S., running on a modernized, cloud-based platform that offers a more accessible and personalized rider experience while enabling highly efficient transit operations.
“We are thrilled that the SEPTA selection committee decided to leverage the RideCo platform to deliver their next generation on-demand transit services,” said Prem Gururajan, co-founder and CEO at RideCo. “Through this partnership, SEPTA will completely change how they operate their paratransit services; utilizing industry-leading technology to offer a convenient rider-app, more timely service, become more efficient, productive and thus save cost. They will be the showcase for modernized paratransit.”
Under SEPTA’s Bus Revolution, the agency set out to transform and redesign their entire bus network to offer a truly competitive and market-leading rider experience. With the challenges that the public transit industry is facing today, SEPTA’s leadership team wanted to future-proof their services, providing enhanced options that match the needs of riders today and tomorrow. Through SEPTA’s implementation of a large-scale on-demand transit system, agencies across the country will have a preeminent example for how both modernized paratransit and microtransit services can increase mobility within their own communities.
“At SEPTA, we are committed to serving our citizens by continually improving our offerings, while ensuring we operate in a fiscally responsible manner,” said Cassandra West, SEPTA's assistant COO. “By partnering with RideCo and launching the new demand response transit software platform, we continue to build on SEPTA’s vision for a stronger future where more equitable, accessible and cost-effective public transit is a reality.”
The agency operates an extensive paratransit fleet of 411 vehicles, along with plans for a 48 vehicle microtransit fleet in the future. Using the RideCo platform, SEPTA has the opportunity to commingle their paratransit and microtransit services and leverage the combined fleets to offer extensive flexibility to riders and achieve even greater cost efficiency.
