Alexandria City Council unanimously approved the release of $513,055 in contingency funds for the city’s DOT Paratransit program on Tuesday night after staff presented a comprehensive package of cost-saving measures and efficiency improvements.
The council had placed 25% of the paratransit program’s funding in reserve at the beginning of fiscal year 2026, directing staff to identify ways to improve performance and reduce costs before releasing the money.
DOT Paratransit is a specialized transportation service for residents and visitors who cannot use fixed-route public transit due to a disability. To use the service, residents must submit an application to the paratransit coordinator. Upon approval, they can make reservations for specific trips provided by the city’s contractor, National Express Transit/Diamond Transportation, and their subcontractor, UZURV.
Owen Albrecht, the city’s paratransit program manager, told council that the program provides “a lifeline” to users and serves residents with disabilities who cannot use fixed-route transit. The service has operated for more than 40 years, even before federal ADA requirements mandated such programs.
“I started my career driving for paratransit and interacting with paratransit riders and seeing how this really is such a life-changing experience,” Albrecht said. “We’ve heard that from some of our residents as well.”
The program currently costs approximately $56 per trip, which staff said remains significantly less than Metro Access, WMATA’s paratransit service that costs more than twice Alexandria’s rate. The city expects to spend about $2 million annually on the program while receiving back about 25 cents on the dollar through federal operating assistance for transit programs.
Hillary Orr, deputy director for Transportation and Environmental Services, said the improvements staff has implemented address many of the concerns council members had been hearing from clients about service quality.
“Unfortunately, Owen had just started with the city and had been here. He’s been here a little over a year now, but at that point he’d only been here about six months and had already hit the ground running, addressing many of these concerns,” Orr said.
Staff outlined seven major initiatives designed to reduce costs and improve service. The most significant involves the city procuring its own vehicles for the first time and leasing them back to the contractor, which could save $2,700 to $3,000 per month per vehicle.
“This is a huge opportunity for us,” Albrecht said. “This hits on providing a high-quality vehicle. That was one concern we’ve heard frequently from our customers as well as cutting costs.”
The city expects to recoup vehicle costs within four years through reduced vendor payments.
The program has already implemented new scheduling software in May and launched a call center system in July that has helped achieve the federal goal of 95% on-time performance.
“We have reached our on-time performance goal of 95%,” Albrecht said. “That is 95% of our trips occur when the customer requested them.”
Ridership has increased modestly by about 3,000 trips compared to last year, reaching 44,400 total trips.
Proposed fare changes would maintain the federally mandated fare-free zone while adjusting rates in outer zones to reflect inflation. Zone 2 fares would increase from $4 to $5, Zone 3 from $6 to $7, and a new Zone 4 would be created with $10 fares for the furthest destinations.
“By implementing a $10 fare here, we reduce the incentive for our riders to travel to those destinations while still allowing them to travel for those necessary trips,” Albrecht explained.
The program also plans to implement a $2 surcharge during peak hours from 7 to 9 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. on weekdays, which could generate up to $17,000 in additional revenue while encouraging riders to travel during off-peak times when possible.
Staff expect to introduce an AI agent for the call center that would provide immediate assistance in multiple languages while reducing wait times. The system would access customer trip information and city policies to answer common questions without requiring human intervention.
“This AI agent would only be pulling from the policies that we looked into and the data around that person’s trip,” Albrecht said. “It would have all the information about a customer’s current trips, upcoming trips … locations, fares that they’ve paid, any outstanding balances.”
He added that customers would still be able to speak with a person during regular operating hours.
Other initiatives include coordinating with Arlington County’s similar program to share vehicles and reduce costs, implementing travel training to help residents learn to use fixed-route transit, and creating a transportation voucher program similar to Fairfax County’s model.
“We’re at the beginning stages of coordinating with Arlington because Arlington and Alexandria share the same operations vendor and software vendor,” Albrecht said. “We could see a reduction of vehicles on the road across both jurisdictions, ultimately saving staff time and money.”
The voucher program could provide significant savings. Fairfax County’s system costs about $16 to $17 per trip compared to Alexandria’s $56 per trip for paratransit.
“We could cut some of our trips by a third in cost,” Albrecht said. “Absolutely fantastic opportunity there.”
Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley, who had proposed placing the funds in contingency during budget discussions earlier this year, praised the improvements staff had already implemented.
“I want to sort of reiterate what y’all started the conversation with, which is this is a valuable, long-standing program that is just inherently expensive,” Bagley said. “I appreciate the steps that are being taken here and have been outlined to try to lower those costs.”
Bagley expressed enthusiasm about the vehicle procurement plan but also voiced some concerns about the AI call center system.
“I have a little bit of concern. I would love to get an update in six months or a year on the AI customer service element,” Bagley said. “I think we’re all excited and interested. But also, I’ve seen it not work well.”
Councilman Canek Aguirre asked about whether the city had considered electric vehicles for the paratransit fleet.
Albrecht said the city is procuring three electric paratransit vans as a pilot program, with delivery expected around the turn of the calendar year.
“We did some extensive analysis looking at current shifts, current what a day in the life looks like for one of our vehicles on the road,” Albrecht said. “And we chose a vehicle that can meet 85% of our past shifts.”
Aguirre praised the city’s approach to piloting electric vehicles.
“I think given our size, not just from a population standpoint and the density, but also land mass and being 15 square miles, it makes us kind of ideal for some of these pilots and also puts us at the vanguard,” Aguirre said. “That’s how Alexandria likes to be for the rest of the region.”
Mayor Alyia Gaskins said she saw broader opportunities for AI implementation across city services.
“There’s so much opportunity for us in this space,” Gaskins said. “There are a lot of other cities that are already using AI and chatbots to improve their permitting processes, their business engagement.”
Staff projects cost savings of $45,000 to $50,000 in fiscal year 2026 through fare changes and vehicle leasing. By fiscal year 2027, savings could reach $300,000 to $350,000 as additional programs like travel training and transportation vouchers take effect.
