A Thursday morning update on COVID-19-related transit and commuter rail changes in California:
— The Altamont Corridor Express has suspended its pilot program offering Saturday service, is reducing train size as of today, and will suspend westbound Train 07 and eastbound Train 10 as of Monday. Details are available here. With much of the San Francisco Bay area under shelter-in-place orders, Ace ridership has dropped by almost 85%.
— San Francisco Muni has suspended cable car and historic streetcar operations, replacing them with buses. More details here.
— Santa Clara County’s Valley Transportation Authority has shortened some light rail trains to two cars where ridership is lowest but continues to operate its bus and light rail services.
— Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit has announced additional service cuts, suspending one morning and one afternoon train in each direction. Details are available here.
— Los Angeles area commuter railroad Metrolink has postponed the planned start of new Saturday service on its Ventura County Line, KCLU radio reports. No new date for the start of service has been determined.
Mr. McFarlane, your suggestion defies logic. If we were to follow your plan, yes, it would be over more quickly, but the death toll would be extreme. Don’t listen to politicians or pundits. Listen to the health professionals.
Gerald point taken, but enclosed busses blowing air around within the enclosed space still seems more hazardous.
Rail cars might recirculate the air to avoid heating cold outdoor air or cooling hot outdoor air to get it to the desired temperature. If they recirculate the air, the intake air will almost match the desired output temperature and require a much smaller amount of heating or cooling.
This whole Shelter-in-place order has been a complete waste, it’s not going to work with 6.7 million people covered, we should just go about our lives normally and let the virus take it’s course, only protecting the most vulnerable. Then we could get rid of the whole thing faster and get back to normal.
Rodney Pratt, these aren’t aircraft people use to commute in(aircraft recirculate air through HEPA filters) but railcars that draw fresh air from the outside, there’s no reason for passenger cars to recirculate air, they’re not at altitudes without oxygen.
Replace open air vehicles/ openable windows with enclosed recirculated air vehicles – makes sense!