Today, U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded a Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative grant totaling $93,750 to Schuyler County Veterans’ Service Agency (VSA). The grant, administered through the Federal Transit Administration, will help implement a one-call/one-click system to accommodate veterans’ transit needs. Specifically, this ride reservation system will provide up to date software to help the VSA answer calls from veterans and coordinate with Schuyler County Transit. This revamped, state of the art system will help Schuyler County’s veterans secure rides for appointments to Bath VA for themselves and their families, and more. Schumer and Gillibrand applaud DOT for their efforts to improve quality and efficiency in New York’s transit systems for veterans.
“As our brave men and women return home from defending our country each day, it is critical that we do all that we can to serve them in return,” said Schumer. “I applaud the Department of Transportation for selecting Schuyler County Veterans’ Service Agency as a recipient of this investment, which will establish an improved transit program for veterans in Schuyler County. When local vets need to make a trip to the doctors but cannot drive themselves, this one-step system will allow them to make an easy ride reservation that they can rely on. This is the least we can offer our veterans on a day like Veteran’s Day, and I vow to continue to work to improve the daily lives of our heroes once they return home.”
“This is a great investment for Schuyler County veterans,” Senator Gillibrand said. “They fought for our nation, and we need to fight for them with the transportation services they need.”
Schuyler County will use this Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative grant to implement a one-call/one-click system to accommodate Veterans’ transit needs. The one-call/one-click hardware and software will be used to process reservations through the Transportation Call Center. The reservation process will be integrated with scheduling, routing, billing and reporting. The Department of Transportation’s Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative is administered through the Federal Transit Administration. This is an innovative, federally coordinated partnership that will make it easier for U.S. veterans, active service members, military families, and others to learn about and arrange for locally available transportation services that connect them with work, education, health care, and other vital services in their communities. Drawing on existing federal resources, and in consultation with advocates for veterans and people with disabilities, projects will be funded in urban, suburban, and rural communities around the nation to strengthen and promote “one-call” information centers and other tools that conveniently “connect the dots” as never before. As a result, these deserving men and women and their families may quickly and conveniently turn to trusted sources who have been specially trained to help them access local transportation options and other support services, ranging from workforce training to food pantry locations.