More than 14,000 New Yorkers rode the bus between 1 and 5 a.m. Wednesday, while Metropolitan Transit Authority employees shut down and cleaned the city’s subways.
The first-ever closure of the subway resulted in a 76 percent increase in overnight bus ridership under the MTAs Essential Plan Night Service. MTA said it has significantly enhanced overnight bus service to provide transportation to essential employees. Normally, an average of 8,300 people takes the bus during the early morning hours, the agency said.
The overnight closures are the largest cleaning and disinfecting program the agency has ever undertaken, the MTA said. The effort to clean and disinfect every car in passenger service once every 24 hours requires more than 700 cleaners working through the night. An additional 2,500 cleaners work throughout the day to clean and disinfect poles, seating, floors, ceilings, doors, and walls. The four-hour closure, the agency said, allows crews to clean stations more deeply and to do additional concentrated cleaning at yards and terminals.
“With the debut closing of the subways completed, we’re reviewing the results and will continuously monitor the system and adjust our staff deployments and local service levels in response to evolving conditions,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye. “On the first night, closure of the system enabled us to clean and disinfect every car in service and while providing alternative transportation overnight. This massive effort is designed to protect the health and safety of our customers and employees while ensuring continued transportation for the essential workforce who are heroes of this pandemic.”
The agency has added 1,168 trips and 344 buses on top of the 235 buses currently running during the early morning hours. In addition, the MTA enhanced service on 61 bus lines, including 11 interborough express routes and 13 new routes that generally do not operate overnight.
The MTA has also launched a pre-book feature for the buses to allow essential workers to book trips early for their ride home. Customers can pre-book a trip for the morning by calling 718-330-1234.
Additionally, essential workers whose trip home on a bus may take longer than one hour and 20 minutes, or that would require more than two transfers or more than a half-mile of walking to and from a bus stop, would be eligible for one free trip in a for-hire vehicle, the MTA said. By planning a trip at mta.info, and selecting “bus” in their travel preferences, essential workers going home or to work between 1 and 5 a.m. can connect with the MTA and arrange for other transportation.