I hope that everyone is safe and special thanks to the doctors, nurses and others that put themselves in harm's way, including bus and tram drivers and metro personnel worldwide. This virus was off the radar and we did not see it coming. It will have very strong effects on the things that are discussed in this blog. After recovery, it is hard to predict what will happen in a particular city or country. For New York City and the subway system, and streetcar proposals for Brooklyn and Queens, we can ask ourselves the following questions:
- Will ridership eventually go back to normal? Or will people avoid rapid transit because the virus is out there before a vaccine is developed?
- Will people who have a choice will avoid living in big cities in order to stay off rapid transit?
- With the current crisis in New York State and New York City, will money be available for the new waterfront streetcar and other rapid transit expansion projects?
- Will millions of commuters switch to bikes and other devices in order to avoid rapid transit?
- How can we be the advocate for streetcars and light rail if the public is turning away from mass transit usage.
- Now that millions are able to work from home on their computers, what will this mean for raid transit usage?
- New York City will do anything to abandon a rapid transit line. If a particular line has specially weak ridership after recovery, will an outside line be on the chopping block?
- What will happen to express services and experimental services, such as the two "F Expresses" that run from Coney Island specially if the ridership is no longer there?
- Will the proposed expansion of the 2nd Avenue subway be abandoned if ridership levels get very low?
These and other questions I have for New York City. I wonder what the situation is in other large cities. Not everyone can run to an isolated area. Before a vaccine is developed, will New Yorkers that did not get the virus yet pack into crowded subway cars? And if the state and city are out of cash, how can the subway be maintained and operated? Will lack of maintenance cause more passengers to abandon the subway and bus routes?
Well that is all for now.
Be safe everyone
Tramway Null(0)
