A new private transportation system for the disabled — intended as a yearlong experiment aimed at increasing options — is looking more and more like the only choice available for its customers.

The Extended Hours Transportation Service, which begins its second week of operation today, provides night and weekend transportation for disabled people.

StarTran’s Handi-Van service used to operate at night, but city budget cuts that took effect this month eliminated the $8 Handi-Van rides once offered from 7 to 10 p.m.

The new Extended Hours Transportation Service, a program of the League of Human Dignity, provides $5 transport until 11 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays. Sundays, rides are offered from 8 a.m until 5 p.m.

But its organizers didn’t know until recently they would be the only such service operating on weekday nights, said project coordinator Bob Clark, and that change likely will spike demand.

“There’s a coincidence here,” Clark said. “The development of our service and the city’s decision on the optional Handi-Van service aren’t directly related.”

Largely because of that coincidence, passengers might end up being turned down by the fledgling Extended Hours program, he said.

The program only will be able to run one van at a time and will offer a maximum of about 70 one-way trips per week.

“For all practical purposes, it will be picking up a little bit of the slack in the evenings,” Clark said. “We expect to have more demand for the service than we’re going to be able to handle.”

Extended Hours, or EHS, is a pilot program partially funded by the Lincoln Community Foundation, Cooper Foundation and Woods Charitable Trust. The idea is to provide more options and greater flexibility for disabled people looking for rides.

Transport Plus of Lincoln, the same company used by StarTran for the Handi-Van service, will provide the service through a contract with the league.

Vicki Harding, Transport Plus owner and president, said demand so far hasn’t been high enough to cause alarm. So far, she said, the service has only been used 15 to 20 times.

“Right now, we’re still trying to get the word out,” she said. “We figured it’s gonna take a good, probably three weeks.”

She expects the demand to increase but not to the point where it becomes unmanageable. The Handi-Van service wasn’t being used much at night anyway, she said.

Clark said he hopes for a high demand, so the league can use that as leverage for more funding in the future. That could strengthen the EHS service, and possibly expand it.

“We’re trying to fill a gap,” Clark said.

Reach Zach Pluhacek at 473-7395 or zpluhacek@journalstar.com.