Community Transport Program

Community Transport provides transport to eligible residents of Snowy Monaro Regional Council. Transport is available via a pool of volunteers and Community Transport Drivers utilising both their own private and Council owned vehicles. All community transport drivers meet the requirements of the Community Transport Driver Safety Framework implemented by Transport for NSW.

Community Transport provides individual and group transport to medical services locally within the Snowy Monaro region and to Canberra and Bega.

Social transport and community access aims to provide transport to a variety entertainment, sport and leisure centres, art and cultural venues. Shopping buses from local towns to Cooma operate fortnightly in addition to a monthly shopping bus to Canberra.

Bookings are essential

Bookings and cancellations must be made directly through the Community Transport office on (02) 6451 1054. The office phones can be very busy, so if you go to our answering service it is important that you leave a clear message with your name and phone number so that your call can be returned as soon as possible.

Telephone bookings hours 9.00am to 3.30pm or office hours 9.00am to 4.00pm.

Fees & Charges

Information on the costs for these services can be found in the SMRC schedule of Fees and Charges on our publications page, or by contacting Community Transport.

Who is Eligible?

You may be eligible for subsidised transport from a variety of funding sources such as:

• Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) – If you are aged 65 years and over (50 years and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People), contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 for an eligibility assessment.
• Community Transport Program (CTP) – If you are transport disadvantaged (for physical, social, cultural reasons) and/or living in a rural or remote area with little or no public transport and don’t have access to private transport.
• Non-Emergency Health Related Transport (HRT) – If you are transport disadvantaged and require transportation to an appointment or hospital over 100 kilometres for medical reasons.
• NDIS – If you have a disability or health issues that limit your mobility, you may access transport services through an NDIS plan.

*All Community Transport services are subject to the availability of resources. Waiting times or earlier pick-up times may apply if resource sharing is required due to the high demand on our services

Medical and Social Appointments

Community transport provides individual and group transport (including local community groups) to the local Snowy Monaro region, Canberra and Bega areas for medical services and social events.

Shopping Buses

Shopping buses operate fortnightly from Jindabyne, Berridale Adaminaby and Nimmitabel to Cooma.

Weekly shopping buses operate from Bombala to Cooma and within the Cooma and Bombala townships each Friday.

Canberra shopping buses operate each month, visiting centres such as Woden Westfield’s and Tuggeranong South Point.

 

Information you need to know about the Community Transport Program

Bookings and cancellations must be made directly through the Community Transport office on (02) 6451 1054. The office phones can be very busy, so if you go to our answering service it is important that you leave a clear message with your name and phone number so that your call can be returned as soon as possible.

Please do not make transport bookings with your Community Transport driver. You need to contact the Community Transport office directly for all booking needs.

You will need to let us know the following information:

- Your appointment time (please make appointments between 10am and 2pm wherever possible);

- Address of appointment;

- Name of specialist/facility;

- Procedure involved, if any;

- Expected length of appointment.

- If you have more than one appointment or if you want to schedule a quick shop, chemist stop etc.

- If you will have your partner, friend or carer travelling with you.

- If you are taking any extra apparatus e.g.. walker, wheelchair, oxygen, luggage

Please give us adequate notice. Short notice of a booking is difficult for us to schedule. We are happy to take bookings several months in advance so best practice is to phone us to book transport as soon as you know your appointment date and time. Please phone to make your booking by at least 2 working days for Canberra/Bega trips and 24 hours for local regional trips before your desired appointment to make sure we can meet your appointment requirements. If you book outside of these times we will endeavour to provide the transport but cannot guarantee we will be able to.

Please remember we are not an emergency service and cannot provide hospital to hospital transport or provide transport to the emergency department of hospitals unless you are attending outpatients.

If passengers are going to a similar destination at a compatible time, it may be necessary for you to share a vehicle. Please be aware this may result in waiting times before or after your appointment. We do try to limit waiting times however delays and unexpected extensions of appointments can impact on schedules.

Brokerage Services

If you are not eligible for the subsidised transport funding mentioned above, we can offer brokerage hire of our vehicles with a driver.

You can find the community transport scheduled bus trip timetable in our latest SMRC Community Connections Newsletter.

Please call our friendly Community Transport team to discuss your group or individual transport needs, or if you have any questions regarding Community Transport services on (02) 6451 1054