Metro North Adapts for Returning Commuters
Commuting to the city by train is not anything new for Alina DiMella.
Having grown up about an hour outside of the city in Westchester, NY, she loved being only a quick train ride away from a Yankees game or a trip into New York City with friends. In the summer of 2019, she completed her first internship at a showroom in Manhattan, spending three days per week commuting back and forth from work to home via the Metro North Railroad.
“The train really is just the easiest way to get into the city for me,” said DiMella. “When I did my [first internship], I got used to taking the train by myself and waking up to do that everyday.”
But then COVID-19 hit, and DiMella, like most working Americans, found herself away from public transportation for quite some time. It was not until New York City began to reopen this past summer as vaccines became more widely available that DiMella found out that her internship with Ross Stores, Inc. would allow her to come into the office partially. She now commutes into Manhattan via the Poughkeepsie train station about once or twice every week.
“I personally wasn’t worried at all about COVID when they told me I could go into the office,” said DiMella. “It was kind of nice because there were a lot more empty seats on the train than usual.”
Emily Mohre is facing a similar situation as she commutes to her internship at an actuarial firm to Jersey City from Poughkeepsie, which also began allowing interns to come into the office on an occasional basis. Mohre, on the other hand, had more concerns about taking public transportation again.
“It’s definitely a little scary going back,” she said. “A bunch of people I know had COVID but I never got it and even though I’m vaccinated, I’m still scared I could get it.”
Since the start of the pandemic, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has implemented a number of new safety protocols in order to protect riders from the virus, including requiring all riders to wear a mask onboard trains. According to its website, riders who refuse to wear a mask could be fined up to $50. Riders who do not have a mask will be provided with a free one by the MTA.
On Monday, September 13th, the total estimated ridership on the Metro North Railroad was 122,500 compared to on Thursday, September 9th, when ridership was estimated at 111,700, according to MTA spokesperson Dave Steckel. He also mentioned that though this does show an increase, ridership is still at more than a 50 percent decrease from what it was at this time in 2019.
Despite this increase in commuters, the pandemic is still very much present in the Hudson Valley. As of this past Friday, there were 767 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Dutchess County, according to the county’s official dashboard.
Though it remains to be seen whether the continuing spread of the Delta variant will allow for a nationwide shift back into the office, it seems that the long awaited push back into non-remote work has, for many, finally begun.
“I was actually really surprised by how many people there were on the train that were commuting,” said DiMella. “It definitely wasn’t as busy as before, but it was at least something.”
