New Jersey Transit’s Access Link service is expanding, with changes expected in the next few months.

This is good news for some riders like John Silva who rely on paratransportation.

"I’ve been disabled officially since 2006. I have back trouble I have knee trouble. Right now, I’m dealing with my heel which I tore in PT. Accessibility is really important to me to be able to just live a normal life,” Silva says.

Silva currently uses a health care transportation service to get him to the places he needs to be, and sometimes that includes New Jersey Transit’s Access Link. But he says that this sometimes comes with issues.

"There was one time I was waiting like two hours for a ride,” he says.

Last week Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law expanding the Rider’s Choice Pilot Program. The expansion would now allow for Access Link customers in 16 counties who do not need wheelchair lifts to opt in to receive their rides through transportation network companies and taxis and rideshares like Uber and Lyft, which Silva prefers.

"Lyft is better because I can just click on my phone in the web browser, and I’ll have a ride home within like 10 minutes,” he says.

Officials say since the start of the program it has reduced wait and trip times for both riders who opt into the program and those who rely on the van’s wheelchair accessibility.

In a statement, Assemblyman Michael Inganamort, one of the prime sponsors of the bill, said in part, "It builds upon the agency’s successful pilot program and ensures our seniors and residents with disabilities have the safe, reliable and accessible transportation they deserve moving forward.”

The expansion will likely come as soon as February 2025.

"Being here is like a prison, you can only leave your house to go to the doctor and that’s no way for anyone to live. But if Access Link is more accessible to people, we can maybe have just a fraction of just a normal life," Silva says.