Richmond and Kingston Accessible Transport (RaKAT) was constituted and registered as a charity in January 1997, and began operations in April of the same year. The aim of the organisation at the time, being to provide group transport provision for other community and voluntary organisation in the boroughs of Kingston and Richmond. In addition to group transport provision RaKAT and Kingston Voluntary Action (KVA) convened a conference to examine, the under provision of transport for individuals, where conventional transport was either inaccessible or inappropriate. Recommendations from the conference led RaKAT to successfully fund raise and build a fully accessible transport Centre, from which to address the issues of an integrated transport provision.
In April 2002 RaKAT opened its doors to London Dial-a-Ride providing them with a 'mini-depot' within our newly opened integrated transport centre. We now also house the Kingston Voluntary Care Scheme (KVCS), a group of volunteers who provide a vital service which includes a community car scheme providing individual trips for the frail and elderly to medical appointments, chiropodists, hairdressers etc. RaKAT's long-term plan is to create a transport infrastructure for the communities of Kingston and Richmond by working with other transport providers to embrace the philosophy of partnership working in order to increase and enhance such provision.