With Los Angeles County having been reopening for the past few weeks, our ridership has been increasing. We have been providing essential bus and rail trips throughout the pandemic, and will continue to work tirelessly to provide the healthiest and most comfortable environment for our riders. Our top priority remains safety and doing everything we can to reduce the spread of COVID-19, especially with the current surge in cases.
About our cleaning procedures
Stations
Metro’s team of custodians cleans and disinfects high touchpoint surfaces three times per day at all rail stations, including the G Line (Orange), El Monte and Harbor Gateway Transit Center stations. Our cleaning crews also remove trash, clean spills and biohazards and spot-clean seats, floors and other surfaces. We use disinfectants that kill viruses and are EPA approved.
Buses
Buses are cleaned before and after they go into service on a route. Our team uses strengthened supplies to clean high touchpoint surfaces on every bus, including:
- front and rear door areas and handles
- hand rails
- seats
- windows
- floors
- stanchions
Trains
Trains are cleaned each time they begin and end service along a line. Metro’s custodial team takes pride in meeting heightened cleaning standards for high touchpoint surfaces, including:
- seats and seat frames
- all stanchions and handrails
- strap hangers and bike straps
- interior door, wall and window surfaces
Service attendants also spot clean vehicles as necessary. You can report any issues by providing the location, line and car number to Metro staff by using the train intercom, station intercom box, or by messaging us on Twitter @metrolosangeles.
We’re also exploring additional sanitation options, such as the use of antibacterial copper film over high-touchpoint contact surfaces and use of UV lights for added disinfection of Metro rail vehicles.
Here’s how you can travel safely
Photo by Adrian Hernandez/LA Metro.
We all play a role in keeping Metro healthy and safe. The following are some essential travel tips we strongly recommend to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus:
- Wear a face mask or covering when you ride. Metro requires riders to wear cloth face coverings or masks, unless you have a health condition or disability that prevents you from wearing one. We will do our best to provide face coverings to those who do not have one.
- Wash your hands before/after traveling. If soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Metro has installed hand sanitizer dispensers at major transit stops and stations.
- Limit touching surfaces (i.e. seat backs, stanchion bars or handles). Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
- Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue. And then throw the tissue in the trash.
- Keep your distance whenever possible.
- Board buses through rear doors only.
- Avoid sitting in a vacant seat directly next to another rider
- Keep at least one row of seats between you and other riders
- If a vehicle is too crowded, consider moving to another rail car or waiting for the next bus/train
- Do not travel if you are sick and avoid close contact with people who are sick.
If the MTA was truthful with the public they would explain that at times in the day there is barely enough time to re-fuel a bus let alone clean it thoroughly. Buses are pulled into the yard in the early evening and are reassigned to a overnight run immediately. The same is true in the morning around 6AM to &AM when those overnight assignments are pulled in and the buses are immediately reassigned to a Morning run.
Don’t expect me on those buses anytime soon. If any I’m looking into a Motorcycle. I’ll give Metrolink a shot later this year. Unlike Metro, those trains are well below the 30% threshold needed for Social Distancing.
I have given up riding the bus (Silver Line) and will reconsider next year.
Wear long sleeves and use the inside of your elbow to hold on to the stanchion bars, instead of your hand, when possible. This will avoid getting things on your hand and potentially to your face.
Before everything changed, this is what I did on my last ride on Metro.
WHEN YOU PROVIDE A BUS WITH ENOUGH ROOM, I WILL LEAVE A ROW BETWEEN MYSELF AND ANYONE ELSE.
Your buses are too overcrowded. You need to run more buses. I realize that some bus drivers have to take off work, but you should be offering voluntary overtime to any bus driver who wants it.
I can tell you now, when people are trying to get to work, especially on time, or getting off from work, all they want to do, is get to their destination. No one is going to wait for the next bus or train even if its crowded. They’re going to board whatever comes first. The schedules for the buses and trains are very unreliable, and the times in between when the next bus or train is supposed to arrive are very unpredictable. The information isn’t really feasible for most people. Unlike the homeless, most people aren’t riding the trains because they want to but because they have to to get to work, school, appointments, etc. So with more people going back to work, social distancing is going to be out of the question but wearing a mask is going to be the only thing that people can be accountable for.