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Suncoast Pasco News

New Bus Service Caters To Disabled

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: June 13, 2008

HUDSON -- A new bus service catering to riders with disabilities will provide a cross-county link for the first time.

The nonprofit Center for Independence is offering New Freedom Transportation, supervisor Roberta Cleland explained Friday. The service will make three trips each weekday in a loop between its Hudson office and Dade City.

The service is registering people now for the passes, which start at $8 for a one-day pass good for two trips. Discounts are available. A van with a raised roof will have room for two wheelchairs and five passengers along the fixed route, Cleland reports.

Besides the fixed bus route on weekdays, New Freedom will offer a second service that takes reservations to pick up riders at their door. This service primarily will operate evenings and weekends, Thursdays through Sundays.

The cost starts at $3.50 per trip. A minivan is used for the reservation system.
"Transportation is a real barrier to disabled persons competing in the world of work," David Barzelay, Center for Independence director of development, said. The on-demand service particularly is geared toward riders needing bus service on weekends and evening hours.

"For many individuals with disabilities in Pasco County without transportation, it has been very difficult to get to a doctor's appointment, to get from one side of the county to the other, to get a job," Cleland wrote in a press release.

"The funding is a little complicated," Barzelay said about the two-year contract he helped arrange. "There are both federal and state dollars." The contract is worth $510,346, with a pending two-year extension for another $537,297.

The fixed route will start from the Center for Independence office at 13910 Fivay Road, n Hudson, travel to S.R. 52 and Little Road, head east to Dade City on S.R. 52, go south on U.S. 301 to S.R. 54 and then travel west on S.R. 54 back to Little Road, in the Trinity area.

The bus then will head north on Little Road to complete the loop back to the center's office in Hudson.
There will be stops lie along the S.R. 52 and S.R. 54 corridors.

"As an additional benefit, the fixed route will connect to the Hillsborough County bus that stops at the intersection of S.R. 54 and the Suncoast Parkway," Barzelay added, "as well as connecting to buses that continue into Tarpon Springs as part of the Pinellas County bus system. The fixed route van effectively links, then, the three-county public bus systems."

The on-demand service requires people to make reservations at least 48 hours ahead of time, Cleland continued. For now the on-demand bus operates only in West Pasco, primarily on evenings and weekends Thursdays through Sundays. The cost is $3.50 per trip, or $32 for 10 on-demand passes.

Anyone with a disability can sign up for either option, not just clients of the Center for Independence, Cleland said. The center has helped people with developmental disabilities for more than 40 years.
Registration requires a rider to appear in person at the center office on Fivay Road to apply, pose for a photo on the pass and to pay in advance.

For a map of routes and more information call 727-861-5600, ext. 227.

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