Stormont Ministers Conor Murphy and Michelle Gildernew have announced two new rural transport services aimed at people who find access to mainstream transport difficult. Dial-a-lift is a new service available to people in rural areas. The service will be similar to Door2door transport currently provided in towns and cities here and will be operated by Rural Community Transport Partnerships. This service is supported by the Department for Regional Development. The second scheme is called the Assisted Rural Transport Scheme or ARTS. ARTS is a pilot scheme which will alllow older people and disabled people eligible for concessionary fares to use their smartpasses on the new Dial-a-lift services. This service is funded by the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development.
Services are due to start in December. We will post further information about services, including how to register, when it becomes available.
###UPDATE###
We have posted more details about Dial-a-lift and the Assisted Travel Scheme in the publications section of our website under Other Publications. To view the information follow this link:
http://www.imtac.org.uk/publications.php?pid=153
Services are due to start on the 1st December 2009.
