While New York City’s stay at home order remains in place, the MTA says that riders have begun returning to the subways and buses.
Bus ridership has nearly doubled from a recent low of 400,000 riders a day, to 700,000 now, according to the MTA. Most growth has been in the outerboroughs. Subway ridership (which plummeted down from 5 million riders a day) hasn’t increased as much, but has ticked up from 400,000 at a recent low to 600,000 now.
The increases come as the MTA continues to shut down the subway system overnight for cleaning and disinfecting, but has not rolled out any new crowd control measures.
Sarah Feinberg, the interim president of the New York City Transit Authority, who oversees bus and subway service, said at the monthly MTA board meeting that these relatively modest increases in ridership make proper social distancing on public transit all but impossible.
“The goal will have to be, being absolutely vigilant about your mask use and putting as much distance from yourself and the next person as possible,” she said.
COVID-19 has hit the MTA particularly hard: at least 123 transit workers have been killed in the pandemic, which has taken the lives of more than 20,000 New Yorkers.
Since the statewide stay-at-home order was announced in late March for all non-essential workers, those essential workers who have had to keep taking mass transit have reported crowded subway cars and buses during rush hours.
The head of buses, Craig Cipriano, urged non-essential workers to avoid riding the buses over the Memorial Day weekend.
“We can’t risk overwhelming the system. Part of keeping everyone safe for now is staying off the buses,” he said. “So please don't try to take them to the beach this weekend. We need all New Yorkers to do their part, that means staying away for now.”
“Not surprisingly, we have seen small shifts in ridership on both subways and buses but overall ridership declines continue to hover around 90 percent," MTA spokesperson Amanda Valdes said in a statement. "MTA continues to run Essential Service for essential workers and essential trips only. We ask New Yorkers to continue to heed the state’s advice by staying home.”
At a press conference on Thursday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked about a similar increase in ridership on the Staten Island Ferry, which has seen its service curtailed during the pandemic.
“I think what's happening is that folks are naturally, you know, growing into what is allowed and that even many things that were allowed people were not doing out of real concern,” de Blasio said. “Are some people potentially taking liberties? We got to watch for that all the time, unquestionably.”
De Blasio added, “But I think my gut says most of it is people still working within the rules, but being a little less conservative than they were.”
The MTA has instituted other measures to protect its workers, like protective plastic barriers in work places and on buses, rear door boarding for buses, and it is increasing its “temperature brigades.” Next week, it will roll out its experimental UV light treatment at a few limited locations.
The agency has also hired its go-to transportation consultant WSP to conduct an international survey of how transit agencies in Asia, Europe and North American protect riders from spreading viruses and will release the study in June.
“The bottom line is the MTA will leave no stone unturned to restore public trust and confidence in the transit system,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye said Wednesday. “Mass transit will not only rebound, but will be a major factor in this recovery as the city and region reopen and people start returning to work and restaurants.”
