NEWBURY — The town wants in on an on-call transportation service offered by the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority.
Newbury Finance Director Chuck Kostro and MVRTA Executive Director Joe Costanzo are working out the details of bringing the Ring & Ride program to Newbury.
Ring & Ride is a curb-to-curb service that is activated by a phone call, Costanzo said.
The town must decide what the service area would be, he said. For example, he said the program currently operates in Salisbury, and that town decided that passengers could be transported to any destination in Newburyport or Amesbury, as well as locally.
He said the service area must be confined to Merrimack Valley communities, because long-distance trips are impractical.
Costanzo said Ring & Ride is not limited to the elderly or to any income group. The service is provided by an 11-passenger van that operates six days per week.
Selectmen Chairman Vincent Russo said yesterday that he expected the new cancer treatment center in Newburyport would be a likely destination.
He said cancer treatment is frequently debilitating, which makes driving a hardship.
"If someone is going in for chemo(therapy) and it makes them nauseous, they won't feel like driving home," he said.
Passengers are required to call at least 24 hours ahead of time for a ride. The van arrives within a 30-minute window, from 15 minutes before the scheduled pickup time to 15 minutes afterward.
The passenger pays $2 per trip, each way.
The service, Costanzo said, should not cost the town any additional money. Newbury is currently charged a $44,000-per-year assessment by the MBTA, he said. Each dollar the MVRTA charges for Ring & Ride is transferred from the town's MBTA assessment, he said.
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