With 'Nobody Going to Work,' Private Bus Companies Are Worried About the Future

[Demovictory9]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/nyregion/nyc-bus-commute-decamp.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

With ‘Nobody Going to Work,’ Private Bus Companies Are Worried About the Future
One company has suspended all operations for the first time in 150 years. Others have drastically reduced service and are pleading for financial help from the federal government.

No other city in America is as reliant on mass transit as New York, with millions of daily riders usually cramming into subway cars, trains and buses run by sprawling public agencies.

But, before the coronavirus pandemic, more than 100,000 commuters also depended on a string of private bus companies to get them to their jobs in the city.

Now, however, with fear of infection keeping most workers away from their offices even as New York slowly reopens, that herd of buses has thinned and the companies that operate them are struggling to survive.



-----------------------

“Through World War I, World War II, 9/11, the housing crisis, Hurricane Sandy, people were still going to work,” Mr. DeCamp said from his company’s headquarters in suburban Montclair, N.J. “Right now, you’re just seeing nobody going to work.”

DeCamp’s daily ridership had fallen from more than 6,500 passengers to less than 400, Mr. DeCamp said. With no pickup in sight, he felt he had no choice but to park his fleet of about 50 buses and furlough his work force, which included about 110 unionized drivers and mechanics.

[SheltieLover]

1. Right to be worried!

Joe will be a modern day FDR with WPA-type work programs, perhaps in infrastructure, renewable energy, etc.

Dems will again clean up repuke super mess.

[safeinOhio]

2. Mussolini

SAY WHAT you like about Mussolini, he made the trains run on time. That was the famous last excuse for Fascism, conveying the idea that while dictatorship might not be very nice, at least it got things done.

trump can't even get the buses to run on time.

[Klaralven]

3. Companies and workers are finding out that centralized office space is not necessary

Many are working from home and both they and their companies think it advantageous.

Other companies are decentralizing, with workers reporting to distributed office space. It's easier to set up social distancing in new space, and low rise buildings don't require the use of elevators, a major social distancing problem. If there is a Covid-19 cluster in one building, it doesn't result in shutting down a whole operation.

Retired now, but I used to commute to work, only to spend almost all my day online or communicating with people in other buildings and other states.

[crickets]

4. The economic dominoes are quietly falling one by one.

Meanwhile, Mitch and the Repubs are on vacation. The coming storm is going to be ugly.

[HotTeaBag]

5. It is truly unfortunate for the drivers, mechanics and others who are hurt by the downturn

but the DeCamp bus line sucks - NJTransit is much better...if you want to get to work anywhere near on time.