Spokane Transit Authority has signed a five-year, $17.5 million contract with Dallas-based MV Transportation Inc., which will provide supplemental paratransit services to STA passengers.

Paratransit services are provided to people who, because of a physical or mental incapacity, can't access regular, fixed-route services.

STA spokeswoman Molly Meyers says the Spokane-based public transportation provider's current seven-year contract with Cincinnati-based First Transit Inc. expires on Dec. 31, and a request for proposals was issued last October. STA received responses from three service providers, including a new contract proposal from First Transit.

She says that STA executive staff selected MV Transportation because that company's approach to providing paratransit services was equal to STA's service standards, and because of MV Transportation's track record with public transit providers in other cities, among other factors.

The recently awarded contract with MV Transportation will become effective on Jan. 1, 2013, Meyers says. STA has an option to renew the contract for two additional years of service.

The current and future supplemental paratransit contracts make up about 40 percent of STA's overall paratransit service, Meyers says. The remainder of that type of service is provided by STA, she says. Last year, Meyers says STA and First Transit averaged a combined total of nearly 40,500 paratransit passenger trips per month.

Currently, First Transit has 58 drivers here and a handful of support personnel, Meyers says. She says MV Transportation expects to have an employee base here of about 75 people and will encourage First Transit employees to apply for its open positions.

First Transit's current contract includes providing services in the early mornings and evenings during the week, as well as on weekends and holidays. Meyers says that same service schedule will be included in the new contract.

Also similar to the existing contract, she says MV Transportation will provide supplemental paratransit routes on an as-needed basis on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. She says those routes would be used when scheduled paratransit trips exceed STA's paratransit service capacity.

Meyers says the transition between the two contract service providers should be seamless to STA's paratransit passengers. The most noticeable difference will be a change in drivers' uniforms, and the branding of the paratransit van fleet. She says MV Transportation will lease transit vans that are owned by STA and branded with STA's logos and design.