Outbreak curtails transit service.

Byline: William Morris

Metro Transit is cutting service, but not as fast as riders are cutting their use of the cities' buses and rail lines.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Metro Transit on Wednesday will begin operating most routes at Sunday service levels, running light rail trips less frequently and limiting the commuter Northstar Line to two trips in and out of Minneapolis each weekday. The cuts, added to the cessation of overnight service in place since March 17, amount to a 40% reduction in service capacity across the Twin Cities.

As sharp as those reductions may seem, they still fall short of the decline in ridership since social distancing measures were put into place to stem the outbreak, which will put new strain on the organization's finances. Bus and light rail ridership is down about 60%, while Northstar has lost roughly 90% of its riders, spokesperson Howie Padilla said.

"With those numbers, and all the different things that have gone on in the community as far as people working from home, school cancellations, and also obviously cancellations of special events, we expect our revenues to be down," Padilla said in an interview. "Exactly how much, it's tough for us to predict, as we try to work through this and try to understand a little bit more about how long this might go."

Metro Transit relies on user fares for about a third of its revenue, which is consistent with other public transit systems across the country, said Yingling Fan, a regional planning and policy professor with the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs. With much of that revenue drying up, many transit systems could face financial challenges or even insolvency in the coming weeks and months.

"Mass transportation needs a mass to be successful," Fan said, warning the impact on transit operators will likely linger even once the coronavirus is brought under control. The impacts will not be temporary, "because people will still have concerns about going to restaurants and using public transportation. So the behavioral implication is longer-term than the health implications."

That threat has transit operators in some parts of the country warning the sector needs help, and fast. The American Public Transit Association on Monday urged federal leaders to swiftly pass proposed bailout packages for the industry.

"As every day passes, the financial consequences are worsening and more dire," APTA President and CEO Paul Skoutelas said in a...