The city of McKinney, the McKinney Urban Transit District and now DART together provide Collin County Transit, a subsidized tax voucher program. This program provides transportation options for participating cities, which include Celina, Lowry Crossing, McKinney, Melissa, Princeton and Prosper.
In addition to living in a participating city, individuals who qualify to use the taxi voucher program must be age 65 years or older, have a disability or meet certain low-income criteria.
In its contract, DART is providing two dedicated vehicles for taxi services and supplemental service through Lyft.
“Having the two styles of service work in unison will reduce customer wait times and lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction,” Ryan McCutchan, the project manager for DART, said in an August presentation to the MUTD board. “It also gives the customer the freedom to select the style of service that best meets their needs.”
Services during the weekdays run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. using the two dedicated vehicles, and on the weekends one of the dedicated vehicles operates from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., per the DART presentation.
DART is also partnering with Telelink Answering, which serves as a call center to provide support to MUTD customers who do not have access to smartphones to book trips. This service is available 24/7, per the presentation.
“We feel like we’re making strides in making the system more accessible to everyone,” said Janay Teiken, McKinney’s housing and community development manager, at the August meeting.
For the first year, people using the MUTD transportation system will pay $3 per trip to travel to participating member cities and $5 per trip to travel outside the member cities into other parts of Collin County. Trips are subsidized by the MUTD through a federal grant. Riders may book the service through the Contractor Call Center by calling 469-771-0667. Riders can also book their trips through the GoPass app, which will launch in February, McCutchan said.
