ACCESS - Transportation

Mission

It is the mission of Gaston County ACCESS Central Transportation to enhance the quality of life for the citizens and of Gaston County by providing timely, cost efficient, high quality, general public and human service transportation.

  1. Core Services
  2. Vision
  3. Objectives
  4. Title VI

Core Services

ACCESS is the transportation "clearinghouse" for the Gaston County human service agencies. ACCESS identifies and arranges the most efficient and economical transportation services for all requests. ACCESS directly provides the needed transportation unless the requests are far more than the department can handle. If this is the case, the department makes the arrangements with outside private providers who can handle the requests, such as private transport services or other public transit providers.

In 1981 the Board of County Commissioners created the department of Central Transportation for the primary purpose of maximizing the use of existing transportation resources to provide economical transportation services for Human Service Agencies and secondly to provide economical transportation services for the general public. Since that time the department has been renamed as ACCESS.

This agency attains its purpose by acting as the Gaston County transportation clearinghouse, that being to identify and secure the most economical transportation service for any request. In some cases the Department provides the service directly; in other cases, the Department refers the request to a more economical provider, i.e. Gastonia mass transit lines, private interstate bus lines and local taxis.

When the service is provided by the Department, payment is expected at the time the transportation service is rendered, unless an account arrangement is made for monthly billing.

Subscription Routes & Demand Response

The Access Division provides seven basic transportation services:

  • Subscription Routes - Daily van service to and from the same destination
  • Demand Response - Individual service for one-time scheduled trips, i.e., medical appointments, service agencies, etc.

For more information regarding the types of services and the rates, contact the Access at 704-866-3206.