VTA and Muni public transit agencies have suspended all light rail and subway services due to the impcasts fromthe Covid-19 Pandemic.
VTA
Under the County’s Shelter-in-Place order, VTA is prioritizing essential service to hospitals, health care facilities, pharmacies, grocery stores, food banks, shelters and other essential destinations during this time of extraordinary caution. This map shows the modified routes and locations of important services. As a result Light Rail is suspended until further notice. Once the County’s Shelter-in-Place order is lifted and ridership increases VTA will review when to bring its light rail service back on line.
VTA is also currently not collecting fares and bus service will end at 9 p.m. except for Route 22 which will continue to operate 24/7.
Muni
Buses will replace Muni’s light rail service as part of the Municipal Transportation Agency’s effort to cope with the coronavirus outbreak and plunging ridership while maintaining service for people working essential jobs. Riders are encouraged to allow extra time as bus service could take longer than typicaly light rail service.
How long the rail shutdown will last has yet to be determined, but, similar to VTA, it is likely to last as long as the shelter-in-place health orders are in effect and Muni ridership remains low.
VTA and Muni are not the only Bay Area transit operators to reduce service. Caltrain plans to cut its weekday service by more than half starting Monday, reducing its daily schedule from 92 trains to 42 indefinitely. Trains will make all local stops between San Francisco and San Jose and run every 30 minutes to an hour. Limited and Baby Bullet trains will be suspended.
BART moved up its closing time for train service to 9 p.m., three hours earlier last week and delayed the start of its Saturday service. BART’s ridership continues to plunge, reaching 8% of normal on both Friday and Saturday.