By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–Wheels2U, Westport’s on-demand shuttle service, is on course to deliver more than 30,000 rides this fiscal year, a record for the five-year-old service, the Westport Transit District said last night.

The program celebrated its fifth anniversary in Westport in October by setting a monthly record of 3,069 rides, the District said in a meeting in Westport Town Hall. The service provided 13,234 rides for the first five months of the fiscal year, July through November.

District Co-Director Peter Gold said the numbers put the service on track to deliver more than 30,000 rides. Jessica Tufnell, a general manager for Via, the transportation company that operates the service for Westport, projected that the number could reach 33,000.

Wheels2U’s highest annual number so far came in the 2024 fiscal year (July 2023 through June 2024. In that year, passengers took 28,385 rides.

The numbers show a growing ridership of the service that offers $2 rides from within Westport to the town’s two train stations, the Westport Senior Center and Jesup Green at the Westport Library, and the Westport Farmers Market when it operates Thursdays from May into November. Wheels2U also provides rides for residents of Susie’s House, a Homes with Hope’s residence, to the Compo Shopping Center.

“‘Try us, you’ll like us,’ seems to be an accurate description of our service,” Gold said.

In other developments, Gold and Co-Director Karina Betfarhad: 

• Decided to again offer free rides between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Dec. 26 through Dec. 31.
• Discussed a planned switch to electric vehicles, likely Kia Niros, in the spring.

The program costs $1,066,469 to operate this fiscal year. The budget projects that fares will cover $60,000; every ride beyond 30,000 will provide another $2. The state share is $664,109 and the town’s portion is $342,360.

Started during the COVID-19 pandemic, the service replaced a fixed-route system with on-demand rides that customers summon with an app and can track in real time. Seven Chrysler Pacifica minivans are dedicated to the service. Each seats seven passengers or four passengers and a wheelchair.

The vast majority of its ridership – 97% – takes the rides to and from the Westport and Greens Farms train stations. The service operates there weekdays 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Services to the other destinations began several months ago.

It runs to the senior center and Jesup Green 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. In October, 53 riders traveled to and from those destinations, up from six in June.

“It’s fantastic,” said Matthew, an attorney who asked to be identified only by his first name, speaking Monday morning at the Westport Train Station. He used Wheels2U because the car he usually drives to the station was in the shop. He also takes the service downtown, and said if more people knew about the service’s efficiency and low fare, ridership would increase.

That’s what the Westport Transit District is shooting for. Gold and Betfarhad are planning outreach efforts, including an upcoming visit to the senior center to talk about the service. They also plan to look for marketing opportunities with Norwalk Community Health Center to jointly promote the service as transportation to the center’s mobile unit when it is stationed at the Westport Library on Tuesday mornings.

Resident Teri Klein takes Wheels2U to the senior center now and then, and called it a great deal for the cost.

“It’s very comfortable, very pleasant and it takes me right to where I’m going,” she said at the senior center. “It’s a very good service, and the price is right.”

New riders are trying it. District numbers show that the program attracted 60 to 79 new riders every month from June through October. Penny Almog, another visitor at the senior center, had just signed up and was looking forward to using the service in bad weather, when she wants to avoid driving in traffic and any other time she doesn’t want to get behind the wheel.

“Anytime I would use an Uber, I can use this,” she said.

She was also “delighted” to learn that her grown children can take it when they come to visit her by Metro-North Railroad.

“It’s a very worthwhile thing to have here,” she said.