Halifax Transit reducing weekly service by 30% effective Monday

Halifax Transit will be reducing its weekly service by 30 per cent on Mondayto protect transit workers and reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Dave Reage, the director of Halifax Transit, told reporters on Friday that ridership on all city transit is down 62 per cent.

He said that as of Thursday, ferry usage was down 63 per cent andAccess-A-Bus usage had dropped 75 per cent.

About half of the city's bus routes will be reduced to Saturday hours as of Monday, but some routes will continue to run on weekday schedules.

"We're going to a Saturday service on weekdays with some supplemental routes operating on weekday service, so it is a bit of a blend," Reage said.

As part of the changes, three bus routes will be eliminated:

• Dalhousie-Dartmouth (41).
• Woodside (63).
• Bedford Highway (93).

Reage said although the three routes are being eliminated, they are "essentially duplicated by other routes."

The reduction was brought about in part by the decline in available staff due to COVID-19 concerns, Reage said.

"We absolutely do recognize that [it] does put the burden on a lot of other people who are working a lot of extra hours," he said. "And I really do appreciate that and I know our residents do as well."

As of Friday, March 20, there are five confirmed and 10 presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.

The reduction in service is the latest measure Halifax Transit is taking toprevent the spread of COVID-19. It has already eliminated fare collection, increased cleaning, limited passenger numberson buses and ferries, andprovided masks to drivers.

"There's numerous actions that we've taken in order to help with the safety of the drivers [and] having said that, of course, we would urge people again, not to use transit if you're not feeling well, and not to use transit unless you have to," Reage said.

Ferry routes have been reduced to 30-minute service on both routes as of Friday.

Halifax Transit has also asked passengers who use Access-A-Bus to limit their trip requests to essential trips only, including medicalappointments, grocery trips, medical services and prescription retrieval.