‘Access’ is approved, MTA decides

The MTA announced plans Sunday to extend its wildly successful program that lets Access-A-Ride users order $2.75 cab rides through an ondemand smartphone app.

The update came just over a week after the Daily News reported the agency’s paratransit vice president, Michael Cosgrove, told the app’s vendor that its contract for the pilot, which was set to end April 30, would not be renewed.

Now, the program will be extended through the end of the year, a welcome relief for the 1,200 riders currently in the pilot. It remains unclear whether any cost-cutting measures will come with the extension — the agency said in a news release that it would detail any changes to the MTA board.

The on-demand option will not be extended to any additional Access-A-Ride users this year. The MTA’s release said officials are determining whether or not the program can be made “sustainably permanent and even expandable.”

The pilot currently provides roughly 850 subsidized cab rides a day, according to agency spokesman Max Young.

The MTA is also making changes to its advanced reservation e-hail service, which allows all Access-A-Ride users in the city to reserve handicapaccessible cabs for $2.75 as long as they do so at least a day in advance. Unlike the on-demand pilot, drivers in the advanced program are certified to assist riders instead of simply dropping them off.

The agency began implementing the changes, which bring the cab-hailing app service Curb into the fold, at the beginning of March.