Modesto buses making fewer trips after drivers, other staff contract COVID-19
Modesto Area Express buses are making fewer trips after 18 of its employees tested positive for COVID-19, according to the city.
Transit Manager Adam Barth said that as of Monday in addition to the 18 with positive tests, six employees were awaiting tests results and four were self-quarantining and not at work after being exposed to the virus.
The city contracts with National Express Transit to operate MAX and all of the employees work for National Express. Barth said MAX is staffed by about 150 National Express employees, primarily drivers but also customer service and management employees.
Barth said that according to National Express, it appears the source of these recent COVID-19 cases was a private party National Express employees attended. But he said National Express has stepped up its cleaning of buses and MAX facilities as well as reinforced its pandemic safety protocols.
A National Express spokesman did not respond to questions in a Monday email about the latest COVID-19 cases. But Ed Flavin said National Express has followed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Cal-OSHA COVID-19 guidelines since March.
He said MAX buses as well as offices and driver areas are cleaned and disinfected throughout the day. “As an added safety measure, anti-bacterial cleaning supplies are provided to our drivers,” Flavin wrote. “If we learn a driver or passenger on a bus has tested positive for the virus, the bus is taken out of service and thoroughly disinfected according to CDC and Cal-OSHA guidelines.”
Recent spike in COVID-19 cases
Barth said National Express had reported an occasional COVID-19 case during the pandemic before these most recent cases.
“I had not heard a real concern about COVID-19 cases until the last couple weeks, and it was just last week that it became a concern,” Barth said, adding he believes National Express is now testing all employees weekly.
He said MAX buses typically run about 1,000 trips a day among 17 routes and three commuter runs. He said buses are running about 30 to 40 fewer daily trips in total because of the reduced staffing. He expects service will return to normal levels as more National Express employees return to work.
Several MAX riders offered differing perspectives Monday about the bus services.
Josh Meinke was waiting at the bus stop in front of the McHenry Avenue Target store for a bus that was running about a half hour late.
“I was at the downtown station,” he said, “and I overheard the employees saying that because of COVID-19, a lot of them had been getting sick, so they’re working with a skeleton crew today, and the rides are going to be like once an hour when usually they’re 15 minutes or a half hour.”
But Monday was the first day he’d experienced any delay other than “the holiday unusualties,” he said.
Ridership down nationwide in pandemic
Tina Marks said no one at the Downtown Transit Center said anything about working with a thin staff. She said she waited an hour at the center Sunday night for a bus that never came. Monday morning, she was waiting on the Route 29 bus. “I thought it was leaving at 10:45, but I guess not,” she said shortly after 11 a.m. Monday.
And a woman waiting at the Transit Center to catch a bus to her job at the McHenry Avenue Walmart said the schedule usually is off during Christmastime, but she had not experienced any significant delays.
Barth said MAX ridership is down by about one half in the pandemic, which he said is typical for public transit systems across the United States. He said the reasons behind the drop in MAX ridership could include students engaged in online learning at home and not in classrooms, the stay-at-home orders, residents working from home, and people losing their jobs.
Barth said MAX makes about 2.5 million passenger trips in a typical year.
Modesto received $12.9 million from the $2.2 trillion federal CARES Act for its public transit system to help the system continue to operate in the pandemic. The federal stimulus also provided extra unemployment benefits, financial help to families, small businesses and others to cope with the pandemic’s economic toll.
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
