Virus has public transit facing uncertain future
BOSTON — Before the pandemic, public transit users in cities around the country bonded over a slew of ills that plagued aging subway systems, from delays and breakdowns to the occasional derailment.
Now those systems are grappling with a new reality — drastically plummeting ridership and revenue caused by a virus that’s also sickening and killing transit workers.
With no clear predictions about when most riders will feel safe enough to return, public transportation networks are doing their best to hold on.
New York’s subway halted its storied overnight service early Wednesday to allow for additional cleaning and disinfecting of cars and stations. The stoppage has some people wondering if all-night service will ever resume in the cash-strapped system.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo pledged Tuesday that it will be back when the pandemic is over.
The future feels especially shaky in Boston, home of the nation’s oldest subway system and a poster child for unreliable public transit.
A few years ago, the city abruptly withdrew what was seen as a strong bid for the 2024 Olympics after incredulous commuters asked how it could even think about hosting the Games with a system that often can’t get them to work on time.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the nation’s fourth-busiest public transit system, is running a modified Saturday schedule and has about 20% of its typical ridership on buses. On subways, ridership is just 8% of a typical pre-pandemic day.
Despite the skeletal ridership and declining revenue from advertising on buses, subways and trams, there’s been no talk of shuttering the system, even as the virus has sickened dozens of employees and killed one.
“We certainly have seen a durable level of ridership,” MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said. “We get every indication from the timing of the trips that many of these folks are health care workers and health care personnel.”
The coronavirus aid bill approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump included $25 billion in public transit grants to help agencies contend with the coronavirus.
Weekday subway ridership typically tops 5 million in New York, the nation’s busiest public transit system. But overall mass transit use has plummeted more than 90% in recent weeks.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has received about $3.8 billion from the relief bill, but the agency says it needs double that amount of aid to help cover an operating loss it estimates could reach $8.5 billion. Without additional federal funding, MTA head Patrick Foye said, “the present and future of the MTA are in serious jeopardy.”
Meanwhile, the agency, which has 70,000 employees, has seen at least 95 employees die from confirmed or suspected COVID-19.
An MTA-commissioned study estimated 60% of riders could return to the transit system by fall. But Foye acknowledged “no one really knows” if that will happen.