Beaver County MATP: How BCTA Books and Drives the Rides, and Where Ride Companies Fit

Beaver County’s Medical Assistance riders ride the same vans as everyone else on BCTA Shared, the door-to-door service the Beaver County Transit Authority (BCTA) ran for decades as DART. BCTA takes the MATP calls, decides how each rider travels, and drives the trips with its own staff. For a transportation company, that means Beaver County MATP work is less about joining a network and more about the days, hours, and places BCTA does not reach.

Who runs Beaver County MATP

Pennsylvania runs MATP county by county, with a broker only in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania guide covers the state rules, Public Utility Commission (PUC) authority, and insurance.

BCTA started its fixed route in November 1982 with McCarter Transit as a local subcontractor, and created DART, its countywide shared ride, in February 1983. In 2001 it put fixed route and shared ride under one contractor, and in May 2003 it became a self-operating authority. Its headquarters and board room are at the Rochester Transportation Center, 200 West Washington Street. The Shared and MATP office sits with operations at 131 Pleasant Drive in Aliquippa.

The state’s June 25, 2026 broker study lists Beaver as a county vendor program: the vendor, here BCTA, handles the rides and the administration, and the county oversees it without claiming MATP administrative costs.

BCTA’s shared ride by the numbers

PennDOT’s report for fiscal 2024-25 (July 2024 to June 2025) profiles BCTA’s shared ride:

BCTA shared ride, fiscal 2024-25	Figure
Trips by riders 65 and older	34,149
MATP trips	12,928
Other shared-ride trips	25,841
Total shared-ride trips	72,918
Average fare	$22.50
Average cost per trip	$40.09
Vehicles in peak service	20

MATP was about 18% of those trips. BCTA reports no persons with disabilities line, because since fiscal 2011-12 programs other than that one have paid for those riders’ trips. The same report lists 25 paratransit vehicles in its fleet and 92 full-time employees, all BCTA’s own.

How MATP rides work in Beaver County

BCTA offers three ways to reach a medical visit, and picks the least costly one that meets the rider’s needs:

• Bus tickets. A rider who lives on and has an appointment on a fixed route takes the bus, has the provider sign a Physician Verification Form, and is repaid in tickets at the Rochester Transportation Center.
• Mileage. 25 cents a mile plus receipted parking and tolls, arranged before the trip and invoiced by the first of each month. See mileage reimbursement.
• Shared ride. Lift-equipped BCTA Shared vans, free to MATP riders. The general public pays $12.25 for an in-county trip.

The rules BCTA posts, as of September 2026:

1. Hours. Mondays and Fridays 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. No service on Sundays, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.
2. Rural days. Urban parts of the county are served Monday to Saturday, but trips to and from rural parts run only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
3. Out of county. MATP rides reach Butler, Allegheny, Lawrence, and Washington counties, and BCTA schedules out-of-county trips only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
4. Booking. Call at least 2 to 3 business days ahead, and no more than a week ahead.
5. Pickup. The driver arrives within 15 minutes either side of the scheduled time, drops the rider no more than an hour before the appointment, and picks up no later than an hour after it ends. Shared drivers need not wait more than 2 minutes after arriving.
6. Cancelling. By noon the working day before. After three no-shows in 30 days, a rider must confirm each trip the day before, for 30 days.
7. Escorts. Riders under 14 must have one. A physician’s form covers an escort for a rider who cannot travel alone, and an attendant paid by an agency may ride along.

Since January 1, 2026, psychiatric rehabilitation visits count as covered trips. Parents or guardians can also ride to visit a child in an inpatient program. Riders in managed care go to providers in their plan’s network, or to ones the plan refers them to. When BCTA cannot meet a rider’s needs, it refers them to the County Assistance Office.

BCTA Connect to hospitals outside the county

Since February 2, 2026, BCTA has also run Connect, an on-demand minivan service from anywhere in Beaver County, booked in its app or through customer service. As of September 2026 its Connect page lists four zones outside the county: Cranberry, Warrendale, and Wexford, with UPMC Passavant and Allegheny Health Network; Leetsdale and Sewickley, with Heritage Valley Sewickley; the airport and Moon Township; and Robinson and North Fayette. The vans have wheelchair lifts and high roofs. Rides run weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., booked up to two days ahead, and at launch BCTA did not allow recurring trips.

Fares run from $4 for trips up to 5 miles to $7 for 15 miles or more, measured in a straight line and paid in the app. BCTA took the Saturday hours, the Robinson zone, and those fares to a public hearing on August 10, 2026. Connect is not one of BCTA’s MATP modes, but it is what a Beaver County rider can pay to reach those hospitals, so weigh it when you quote private pay trips there.

Where a ride company fits in Beaver County

1. Get PUC authority. Every paid ride that starts and ends in Pennsylvania needs it. The state guide explains the application and the $350 fee.
2. Join the bidders list. BCTA’s solicitations page carries a Bidders List Data Form: your business details, whether you are a DBE certified through the Pennsylvania Unified Certification Program, the year you started, your gross receipts band, your NAICS codes, and whether you subcontract. Federal rules make BCTA use full and open competition.
3. Follow the board. The board meets at 4 p.m. in the Rochester board room, and its agendas list contract awards, such as snow removal in September 2026. The meeting after September 15, 2026 was moved to October 27, 2026.
4. Serve the trips the shared ride skips. Sundays and the six holidays, out-of-county visits on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, destinations beyond the four counties BCTA serves, trips after 5:30 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays or after 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and rural trips on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays all fall outside BCTA Shared.
5. Take the trips MATP does not fund. Stretcher rides go to the rider’s HealthChoices plan. Beaver is in the Southwest zone, and UPMC for You’s manual, updated December 31, 2025, routes its members’ medically necessary wheelchair van and ambulance trips through UPMC Medical Transportation at 1-877-521-7433. See UPMC for You and our stretcher transportation guide.

A company near the county line can look next door. Allegheny County books MATP onto ACCESS and its four carriers, Butler County runs MATP through the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, and Lawrence County borders Beaver to the north.