Transport for London (TfL) has extended the operating hours for London’s vital free Dial-a-Ride service to midnight with the last pick up at 11pm to support older Londoners, and those with long-term disabilities to socialise at night. Dial-a-Ride services will also be extended further over the festive period to allow people to enjoy Christmas festivities for longer.
The extended hours have been introduced following engagement with users and as booking requests begin to increase following the pandemic.*
TfL has been working closely with Transport for All and Age UK London to improve Dial-a-Ride services and to get feedback from members who use it. Through speaking to Dial-a-Ride members with a variety of accessibility needs the charities identified that some people who rely on Dial-a-Ride services had to leave social events at 8:30pm as Dial-a-Ride only operated until 10pm following the pandemic.
As a result of this engagement and booking requests beginning to increase, TfL has extended the operating hours for Dial-a-Ride to midnight to encourage more people to take advantage of the vital service. During the pandemic trip volumes reduced significantly and TfL hopes that by further promoting the extended Dial-a-Ride operating hours more people will make use of the free service.
TfL is committed to making London’s transport network more inclusive and improving Dial-a-Ride services is a key part of this. Earlier this year, TfL recruited 12 additional drivers to meet the increased demand for the services, as well as more staff to improve call waiting times. TfL is also implementing a new simpler booking system, which will launch later this year and will allow members to book trips online, as well as over the phone and via email. This will lead to people being able to book more quickly, and better routing of journeys, which results in shorter journeys and helps free up time to offer trips to more people.
