Chester County MATP, Pennsylvania: Chesco Connect and the County-Run Model (2027)

Chester County drives its own Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) rides. The county Department of Community Transit runs them as Chesco Connect, a door-to-door shared-ride service that also carries seniors, riders with disabilities, and the general public. For an outside company, that changes the question from “how do I join the network” to “which trips does the county not cover, and when does it buy.”

Who runs MATP in Chester County

Pennsylvania funds MATP through its counties, except where DHS contracts a transit agency directly and in Philadelphia, which has a broker. Licensing, insurance, and the statewide trip rules are in the Pennsylvania guide.

The state’s June 25, 2026 broker study places Chester among eight “county sole service provider” programs, with Centre, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Pike, Potter, and Wayne. In that model the county itself is the MATP transportation provider, and county staff complete a time study so DHS can claim their MATP work as a program cost. Delaware County, next door, works the other way: it pays a nonprofit to drive its riders.

From Rover to Chesco Connect

Before 2023 the county contracted its community transportation to Rover Community Transportation. A county study summary from January 2021 said the Rover-run program gave nearly 250,000 trips a year and set out the county’s next step: a request for proposals to explore other ways of running it.

PennDOT’s report for fiscal year 2024-25 records what followed. Chester County became the grantee for the Senior Shared-Ride and Persons with Disabilities programs in July 2022, and since April 2023 it has directly operated those programs and most of its community transportation. The Commissioners’ agendas show what the county paid Rover in its final contract years:

Agenda	Action	Terms
October 5, 2021 (Sunshine agenda)	Amendment 13 to Rover contract 0015417	Allowable hybrid-cost fixed rate reduced to $41.70 per trip, July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, funded by MATP
July 14, 2022	Rover contract amendment	$126,000 in paratransit rate adjustments, July 1 to September 30, 2022

Treat $41.70 as a dated benchmark from before the county took the work in house, not as today’s price.

Chesco Connect by the numbers

The county’s annual report and PennDOT’s report both cover fiscal year 2024-25, July 2024 to June 2025:

Measure	FY 2024-25
Completed trips	141,182
MATP trips (PennDOT)	25,889
Riders enrolled in MATP	671 of 2,504 unique riders (27%)
Dialysis trips	23,219, for 143 riders
Average cost per shared-ride trip (PennDOT)	$59.37
Average shared-ride fare (PennDOT)	$26.12
Vehicles in peak service (PennDOT)	54
Drivers	51 full time and 11 part time, with 26 full-time openings
On-time performance	87.7%, and 92.9% in calendar 2025 up to the August 2025 report
Calls	93,202 received, 20,481 abandoned

Ridership is growing: July 2025 brought more than 12,300 trips, up from 11,600 in July 2024, per the county’s August 13, 2025 release. The county’s plan was to hire more drivers and call center staff and improve its dispatch and routing, and it trains new drivers with the Chester County Opportunities Industrialization Center.

How Chesco Connect schedules rides

These rules, current as of September 2026, also mark the trips the county leaves to others:

• Booking. Riders reserve at 610-344-5545, weekdays 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., by 1:00 p.m. one business day ahead and up to 30 days out. Same-day requests lose the discounted fare.
• Hours. Weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays and extended weekday hours are for life-sustaining dialysis only.
• Pickup window. Riders are ready 15 minutes before pickup, the van is late only after 15 minutes past the scheduled time, and the driver waits 5 minutes after arriving. Drivers need not go into a facility to find a rider.
• Holidays. No service on January 1, May 25, July 3, September 7, November 26 and 27, and December 25 in 2026.

Out-of-county medical trips

Chesco Connect goes no more than 15 miles past the county line, and only for medical appointments booked at least 10 business days ahead by 1:00 p.m. Appointments start at 10:00 a.m. or later, and riders must be ready to come home by 2:00 p.m. Each neighbor gets set days:

Destination	Days
Philadelphia	Monday, Wednesday
Montgomery County	Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Delaware County	Monday, Wednesday
Wilmington and the State of Delaware	Tuesday, Thursday
Lancaster County	Tuesday
Berks County	Tuesday, Friday

How an outside company gets Chester County work

Because the county is its own MATP provider, there is no broker network to apply to. County contracts reach private companies in two ways, and a few calls cover the rest.

1. Register on Public Purchase. The Department of Procurement and General Services posts every county bid, request for proposals, and request for quotes there, and registering is free. Public bid openings take place at the Controller’s office, 313 West Market Street, Suite 6302, West Chester. On September 30, 2026, the county’s bid page listed no open bids.
2. Read the Commissioners’ agendas. Contracts and amendments appear there with the vendor, amount, purpose, term, and funding split, as the Rover amendments did.
3. Call Chesco Connect. Ask the Department of Community Transit, 610-344-5545, whether it buys any trips from private carriers, and for which riders or hours. Its 2024-25 annual report splits each month’s trips into “Chesco” and “Surrey” totals and gives its on-time rate including Surrey, so ask how the Surrey trips are arranged.
4. Hold PUC paratransit authority. Every paid ride in Pennsylvania needs it, and the state guide lists the steps and insurance floors.

For how county ride contracts are usually written and scored, see government NEMT contracts.

Rides Chesco Connect does not cover

The county’s schedule leaves gaps a licensed company can fill:

• Evenings, Sundays, and Saturdays other than dialysis, when Chesco Connect does not run.
• Longer medical trips, farther than 15 miles out of the county or on days it does not serve that county. See long-distance medical transport.
• Stretcher trips. The DHS list of February 13, 2026 excludes stretcher service from MATP, and Chesco Connect may refer a HealthChoices member who needs one to the member’s plan. The Southeast zone plans are Geisinger Health Plan, Jefferson Health Plans EverWell, Keystone First, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, and UPMC for You.
• Standing facility work. Chesco Connect’s top destinations in 2024-25 were Handi-Crafters, Laurens House, and dialysis centers in southern Chester County. See dialysis transportation and facility contracts.
• Riders with disabilities in SEPTA’s area. Chesco Connect tells Persons with Disabilities applicants who live in SEPTA’s service area to register with SEPTA CCT, SEPTA’s own paratransit service. See ADA paratransit contracts.

What Chesco Connect charges the general public

Same-day requests and general public riders pay full fare, which makes this table the local yardstick for private pay pricing, as of September 2026:

Trip miles	Full fare
Under 2	$15.00
2 to 4.99	$25.00
5 to 7.99	$28.05
8 to 10.99	$35.00
11 to 13.99	$50.00
14 to 16.99	$55.00
17 or more	$75.00

What to do first

1. Register on Public Purchase as a County of Chester vendor, and check the county’s bid page each month.
2. Call Chesco Connect at 610-344-5545 and ask whether it buys any trips, especially Saturday dialysis, wheelchair, or out-of-county runs.
3. Get PUC paratransit authority before your first paid ride.
4. Offer evening, weekend, and same-day service to dialysis centers and day programs, priced against the county’s full fares.
5. Look next door. Delaware County was choosing a new MATP provider in 2026, Montgomery County contracts a vendor, and the South Central Transit Authority runs MATP in Lancaster County and Berks County under a DHS agreement.