Ridership is down at the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, but that’s the case on public transit across most of the country.
JTA spokesman David Cawton says they normally see between 33,000 and 35,000 riders a day, and now that number is closer to 14,000. He says low numbers mean JTA will be impacted financially now and most likely in the future.
“Thankfully we are in good shape with our reserves,” Cawton says.
He says they don’t plan to implement layoffs or furloughs, and a lot of the focus is on cleaning the buses at least once a day.
JTA is also cutting down on bus capacity to limit social distancing. Each bus is carrying a maximum of 20 people at a time right now. Cawton says that's about half the usual capacity.
The American Transportation Association Estimates transit agencies face $1.75 billion in direct costs related to the coronavirus for the months of March through September.
