Access Will County Dial-A-Ride Reports Massive Growth After Consolidating Paratransit Services

Will County Board Public Works & Transportation Committee Meeting | May 5, 2026

Article Summary
The Access Will County Dial-a-Ride program has seen explosive growth in ridership following a major consolidation of local transit services, providing borderless, county-wide transportation for seniors and residents with disabilities.

Access Will County Dial-a-Ride Key Points:

• The paratransit program is now available to any Will County resident aged 60 and over, or anyone living with a disability, without township boundary restrictions.

• Service hours have been expanded to run Monday through Friday, from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

• Will County funds approximately 31% to 40% of the program’s monthly invoices, with the remainder covered by the RTA and the Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging (AgeGuide).

• Ridership is projected to leap from around 15,000 rides in 2025 to nearly 35,000 in 2026.

The Will County Public Works and Transportation Committee on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, received an overwhelmingly positive quarterly update on the Access Will County Dial-a-Ride program, which has successfully consolidated multiple regional transit services into a single, unified system for vulnerable residents.

Will County Mobility Manager Colin Phillips outlined the massive restructuring the program underwent to eliminate service gaps and streamline registration for seniors (aged 60+) and individuals living with disabilities.

Previously, paratransit services in the county were fragmented across various township-specific programs, leading to long registration wait times through Chicago-based agencies and trip denials due to a lack of available vehicles. By consolidating programs like Central Will Dial-a-Ride and Ride DuPage into the county-wide Access Will County system, those logistical hurdles have been drastically reduced.

“Availability of this program is no longer restricted by township,” Phillips told the committee. “That means if you are a Will County resident who’s aged 60 and over, or living with any type of disability, you are potentially eligible for this program.”

The consolidation also allowed the county to standardize and expand operating hours from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, ensuring residents have access to early-morning medical appointments, such as dialysis or physical therapy. The service area now covers all 16 townships within Will County, plus a one-mile buffer and a specific portion of southern Cook County to maintain access to critical medical facilities frequently used by residents in Crete, Monee, and Frankfort.

Financially, the county leverages significant external subsidies to keep the program operational. According to Phillips’ report, Will County paid roughly one-third of the total program costs in early 2026, including a January PACE invoice total of $85,160.57, of which the county was responsible for $28,327.59. The remaining costs are split through a 50/50 match from the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and grants from AgeGuide.

Board Member Mica Freeman (D-Plainfield) noted the staggering projected growth in the program’s usage, asking how the county plans to handle a leap from roughly 15,000 rides in 2025 to a projected 35,000 rides in 2026.

Phillips explained that the numerical jump is primarily the natural result of absorbing the heavily utilized Central Will program (covering Homer, Jackson, Joliet, Lockport, and Troy townships), rather than an unmanageable surge in new individual demand. In the first four months of 2026 alone, the program successfully delivered approximately 13,500 billable rides.

“The biggest change is that we’re not experiencing the same level of trip denials where people in the past were maybe getting the trips denied because there wasn’t enough service available,” Phillips said. “Because we combined services, there’s more transportation available and we’re not experiencing that same problem, which is just a great thing to hear when I’m talking to people every day.”