Transit agency may make more cuts in routes

Official cites driver absenteeism

LITTLE ROCK — A day after Rock Region Metro suspended five bus routes and modified a sixth to cope with high absenteeism among the Pulaski County agency’s bus drivers, its top official refused to rule out more cuts, including suspending Sunday service.

Charles Frazier, Rock Region’s executive director, said the absences are the acute challenge the agency is facing in trying to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re monitoring the situation,” he told the agency’s board Tuesday. “We are hoping we will not need to do so.”

In addition to the service cuts, which were designed to limit bus service disruptions from the absenteeism, the agency temporarily laid off nearly two dozen employees.

The layoffs and disruption of service take place as passengers are fewer and fare revenue is falling off, according to Rock Region data.

Ridership on Rock Region’s 23 regular bus routes plunged 44% last month, to 109,203 from the 195,562 who rode the buses in April 2019. For the year, ridership has declined 12% to 501,125.

Much of the precipitous drop is associated with social-distancing protocols that recommend people take only necessary trips, work from home when possible and limit gatherings to no more than 10 people to reduce virus transmission opportunities.

The latter has required the transit agency to reduce service on some routes and add buses to high-demand routes to ensure buses carry no more than 10 people.

The system now requires all passengers to wear masks and enter and leave the buses from the rear door, an effort aimed at protecting drivers that essentially allows people to ride for free because it eliminates the opportunity for the drivers to collect fares.

Fare collection in April totaled just $5,766. Rock Region had anticipated collecting $155,392.99 last month.

Rock Region, which hasn’t had an employee test positive for the virus, is not alone. Transit agencies nationwide are struggling.

Ridership on subways, buses and commuter-rail lines has plummeted across the U.S. as people work remotely and follow stay-athome guidelines, according to Bloomberg. Fare-box revenue and other funding streams have fallen dramatically.

While Congress allocated $25 billion for public transportation in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the ongoing effects of the coronavirus are outpacing that historic allocation, Pat Foye, the chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Transit Agency of New York, told reporters Tuesday.

“Not funding us at the levels that we’ve suggested — and each agency has a different ask of course — will slow and stunt the national recovery that we’re all going to need when the pandemic subsides,” Foye said.

The New York system, the largest U.S. mass-transit agency, is asking for an additional $3.9 billion of federal aid to help cover lost revenue and increased cleaning costs in 2020. The agency faces a potential $10.4 billion combined deficit for 2020 and 2021.

Rock Region, meanwhile, has received a $15 million grant under the federal package, to help make up for lost revenue and increased expenses associated with combating the virus. It recently installed plastic-glass “sneeze guards” on all its buses to protect drivers from passengers, which will allow drivers to collect fares once social-distancing protocols are relaxed.

On Tuesday, the transit board approved an emergency purchase totaling $105,900 for 60 electronic air cleaners to install on all its buses and paratransit vehicles.

The electronic air cleaners use ultraviolet light to kill bacteria, mold and viruses while the buses are in operation. Even using the emergency powers Frazier has available under the agency’s procurement policy, the electronic air cleaners have a twoto three-week manufacturing time.

The agency already has been sanitizing its fleet, making available on-board hand sanitizer stations to riders and hand sanitizer at the River Cities Travel Center, the downtown Little Rock bus station. It also has purchased special equipment to fog sanitizer on the fleet nightly and increased its fleet sanitizing schedule, including wiping down all hightouch surfaces daily.

The protocols “are going to be the status quo until further notice until we see the economy reopening and the state and the [U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] give additional recommendations for social distancing,” Frazier said. “We’ll react to those recommendations.”