Ridership on buses and trains run by Connecticut’s Department of Transportation has dropped significantly, as schedules are being truncated and more than half of DOT’s staff works from home amid the COVID-19 crisis.
As of Monday, the Hartford Line is running on a new weekday schedule between Hartford and Springfield as well as Hartford and New Haven.Â
“Rail and bus ridership is sharply lower,” said DOT spokesman Judd Everhart. “But we are keeping the service running because it is vital to Connecticut citizens who need to get to work — especially first responders and those in the medical community.”
Bus ridership has been down about 50% in recent weeks, according to Everhart, and rail ridership dropped by about 90%. In February passengers made more than 260,000 trips on the DOT-run CTfastrak bus line, according to the department’s figures. The CTrail Hartford Line, a train route between Springfield, Mass., and New Haven, had an average monthly ridership of 51,000 between 2018 and 2019.Â
While the majority of DOT staff telecommutes, construction projects overseen by the department are continuing as scheduled, and in some cases workers have been able to accelerate work because there is less traffic on highways, Everhart said.
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“For example, on the Mixmaster in Waterbury (the huge interchange between I-84 and Route 8) we have closed down a lane using jersey barriers to allow workers greater access to the site,” Everhart said.
