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While most New Yorkers are currently staying in their apartments, it’s still necessary for essential workers like healthcare providers and pharmacists to travel throughout the city. The MTA is hoping to accomplish that, while dealing with a historic drop in ridership, through a newly unveiled reduced service plan.
"This reduced schedule preserves service for the heroes on the front line of this crisis across New York City Transit, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North," MTA Chairman Pat Foye said at a news conference announcing the changes according to ABC7.
Starting today, overall subway service will be reduced by 25 percent. B, W and Z trains will no longer run on weekdays and some express trains will be running local. Buses, meanwhile, will be operating at 75 percent across the city. You can find the full rundown of service changes here.
The move is meant to partially address the financial crisis that the agency is in. Earlier this week, the MTA announced they were on track to lose $4 billion over the next year. They’re currently asking help from the federal government to address those losses. Ridership on the subway was down a staggering 87 percent, and ridership on Metro-North is currently down 94 percent.
Meanwhile, 52 MTA employees have tested positive for coronavirus so far, an additional factor hindering the operation of the network.