Dial-a-Ride is a service run by

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

(TfL) which is mainly a door-to-door community transport service for people with a permanent or long term disability or health problem who are unable, or virtually unable to use public transport. In 2019, there were around 40,000 members of the scheme.

History

In December 1972, London Transport began operating a dial a ride service in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, aimed at both commuters and shoppers. This ended in 1976 due to high costs. In 1982, Camden Council set up London's first dial a ride scheme for disabled residents, with funding from the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

(GLC). Several London councils including

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

soon followed. Following the successful development of GAD-about in Greenwich, a clone prototype project was developed for London Transport which was then handed over in a modular form to allow easy implementation and scaling up. By the late 1980s, there were over 25 dial a ride groups across London, subsidised by a £7.2m grant from

London Regional Transport London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for most of the public transport network in London, England, between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operation ...

Until 2002, the London Dial-a-Ride service consisted of six sectors, each of which had its own main colour on the

Mercedes-Benz Sprinter The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is a light commercial vehicle (van) built by Mercedes-Benz Group AG of Stuttgart, Germany as a large van, chassis cab, minibus, and pickup truck. In the past, the Sprinter had been sold under the Mercedes-Benz, Dodge, ...

minibuses: Since 2002, Dial-a-Ride has been run and funded solely by TfL. In 2012, TfL began replacing the entire Dial-a-Ride fleet at a cost of £3.9 million.

Fleet

, the fleet comprises 256 accessible vehicles, all Mellor Tucana low floor minibuses, built on the

Volkswagen Transporter The Volkswagen Transporter, based on the Volkswagen Group's T platform, now in its seventh generation, refers to a series of vans produced for over 70 years and marketed worldwide. The T series is now considered an official list of Volkswagen G ...

platform. The fleet meets

Euro VI The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in European ...

emission standards, and therefore is

Ultra Low Emission Zone The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is an area in London, England, where an European emission standards, emissions standard based charge is applied to non-compliant road vehicles. Plans were announced by London Mayor Boris Johnson in 2015 for ...

compliant. Historically, a range of vehicles have been used including

and Vito minibuses.

Taxicard

The 'Taxicard' scheme provides subsidised

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

and private hire journeys for Londoners with serious mobility or visual issues, with around 60,000 members registered to the scheme. The scheme is run by

London Councils London Councils is the collective of local government in Greater London, England. It is a cross-party organisation that represents London's 32 borough councils and the City of London. It was formed in 1995 as a merger of the London Boroughs A ...

References

External links

London Dial-a-Ride website
Transport organisations based in London Paratransit services Transport for London {{London-road-stub

History

Fleet

Taxicard

See also

References

External links