The E-Hail Pilot Program is an on-demand travel option for eligible Access-A-Ride customers. Pilot customers have been selected at random by the MTA and have the opportunity to try out a more flexible travel option and help the MTA evaluate the program’s benefits.
A version of this pilot has been operating since 2017 and we are entering the third phase of this pilot in July 2024.
The Pilot Program will continue to run through at least the end of 2024, as we continue to evaluate program costs and benefits and hear feedback from participants. The program changes described below have enabled us to go beyond the original pilot participants and bring the program in line with successful on-demand programs across the US.
In this third phase of the pilot, participants can take up to 25 or 40 subsidized on-demand trips per calendar month, as determined by each customer’s previous paratransit usage. A participant pays an initial charge of $4 for each trip, and the MTA will subsidize up to $60 of the cost of each trip.
This means that with the MTA subsidy, a participant will only pay $4 for a trip that costs up to $64. A participant can book a trip that costs more than $64, but will be responsible for paying the remaining balance.
Sample trips
Total Trip Fare |
Participant Initial Charge |
MTA Subsidy |
Participant Additional Payment |
Total Participant Payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
$64 |
$4 |
$60 |
$0 |
$4 |
$75 |
$4 |
$60 |
$11 |
$15 |
When a participant has already taken all of their allotted monthly trips (25 or 40), the participant pays the full fare for each subsequent trip.
Participants were selected to ensure a representative sample of the overall AAR customer base. We are not adding additional customers to the program on request. We hope the latest changes will allow us to expand E-Hail to more customers in the future. Customers who are remaining in the pilot from the previous phase were sorted into whichever of the two programs best matched their AAR usage patterns.
How E-Hail works
Pilot participants are able to book trips from five eligible service providers: Arro, CTG, Lyft, Uber, and the Drivers Cooperative. Customers can confirm their trip cost in a provider’s app before choosing to book it. Customers can use any participating service provider for a given trip and can compare the same trip across the different providers, choosing their preferred trip provider based on cost, wait time, or other criteria. We expect customers to primarily use the service providers’ smartphone apps to book trips, but customers can book trips via phone call with CTG, Uber, and the Drivers Cooperative.