Coronavirus Causing Massive Decline In Public Transportation Ridership
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Whether it's catching a ride on a county bus or trying to hail a cab, the coronavirus pandemic is severely affecting public transportation.
Ridership is way down because of concerns of infection. .
"That went down drastically. I guess it's the nature of the thing. Nobody wants to catch anything," said Tri-Rail commuter Dennis Douglas.
Douglas takes Tri-Rail to Miami International Airport for work. He has more than enough room for social distancing.
It's the same on Metrorail.
"It's decreased greatly. It used to be packed, back to back," said Shaam Sanchoo. "Now you can get your own double seat by yourself if you'd like."
One reason buses and trains are seeing declines is because people are either not leaving the house or working from home. With fewer people on the road, the commute is not that bad.
"We've seen our levels of ridership decline," said Alice Bravo, the director of Miami-Dade Transportation & Public Works. "We're comparing to about two weeks ago. We're seeing a drop of about 60% on the Metromover and 50% on Metrorail and bus service. So we're looking at that decline and we're starting to formulate plans to reducing our level of service to match that."
Miami-Dade Transit has not reduced service yet, but it's coming.
"Probably what we're going to see is maybe reduced frequency on certain routes. We plan to keep our routes in place so we have the same coverage over the county for bus routes and Metrorail reduce the frequency as well," she said.
Brightline has already cut back service by 30% during non-peak travel times. Tri-Rail and Broward County Transit are monitoring before making any decisions.
Now, there's a lot of cleaning happening on board trains, buses and in stations, while passengers do their best to guard against the coronavirus.
"It's very weird. People seem like they're on edge, they have their gloves on and their mask on," said Sanchoo. "When I go in there I try not to sit or touch anything. I just stand in between the aisles and just try to make it to my stop without touching anything."
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