Handi-Transit to get new name, mobile app for riders

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This article was published 20/12/2018 (2633 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city’s Handi-Transit service is getting a new name that is intended to be more inclusive.

The service will be rebranded as Winnipeg Transit Plus in 2019. The name was chosen by Winnipeg Transit’s Handi-Transit policy advisory committee after a consultation process that started in September 2017.

Handi-Transit is a pre-booked, shared-ride service for people with physical disabilities that prevent them from using the Winnipeg’s bus system regularly. The service’s cars, minivans and minibuses can take users anywhere in the city as long as the origin and destination lie within 500 metres of a bus route.

As part of that process, Winnipeggers voted online to generate new names for the service. They voted again to make the final decision after the committee whittled the options down to three names from 19, according to Transit’s manager of client services, Josie Fernandes.

The other two finalists were Winnipeg Transit Connect and Winnipeg Transit Link.

“Since the Handi-Transit name was adopted in 1977, there have been many changes in our understanding of disability issues and the language used to describe persons with disabilities,” a city news release said.

“Handi-Transit’s new name, Winnipeg Transit Plus, more accurately reflects the city’s fundamental commitment to equality and providing inclusive customer service,” said Coun. Matt Allard, chair of council’s public works committee.

The rebranding includes new scheduling software that will help Winnipeg Transit Plus with daily operations, including dispatching, managing client information, tracking complaints and producing invoices for contractors.

A mobile app for public use will round out the bundle of changes.

The software and app, called RouteMatch, will replace iRide, Transit’s in-house software.

“It just wasn’t doing what we needed it to do,” Fernandes said of the old software, which has been in place since 2004.

In addition to the mobile app, RouteMatch will feature web portals that will allow Winnipeggers to view and manage their own user profiles.

Transit hopes the new software will help Winnipeg Transit Plus provide more timely service and be more efficient with its vehicles, Fernandes said.

Transit doesn’t have an exact date for RouteMatch’s launch in Winnipeg, since is still being tested, but Fernandes said Winnipeggers can expect all of these changes early in 2019.

Transit will release a new user guide and hold info sessions to help Winnipeggers get comfortable with the service after launch.

ryan.job@freepress.mb.ca