More Saturday morning rail news:
— The American Public Transportation Association has increased its request for emergency funding for public transit agencies to $16 billion from $12.875 billion, reflecting an estimated $14 billion in funding losses and $2 billion in direct costs including upgraded cleaning. “Without these funds,” APTA CEO Paul P. Skoutelas said in a news release, “the overwhelming majority of public transit agencies will be required to either drastically curtail services or suspend services altogether.”
— LA Metro’s six rail lines have seen a nearly two-thirds drop in ridership, the LA Times reports, and the agency faces “a massive financial hit,” CEO Phil Washington told the paper. “We don’t know the totality of that effect yet but we are preparing and bracing for it.” Metro’s current fiscal budget projected a $116 million increase in sales tax revenue, one of its primary funding streams; that number will clearly drop under California’s stay-at-home order.
— A second Union Pacific employee in North Platte, Neb., has contracted the COVID-19 virus, KNOP-TV reports. The 20-year-old is reported to have contracted the virus from contact with a coworker who was diagnosed earlier this week. Two Canadian Pacific employees at CP headquarters in Calgary were also diagnosed with the illness earlier this this week, the CBC reports
— Three NJ Transit employees — one described as a “frontline worker” — have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, NorthJersey.com reports. The agency’s Medical Services Department is identifying coworkers who had prolonged contact with those workers and directing them to talk with their medical provider for guidance. Work spaces involved have been “immediately and vigorously cleaned and disinfected, an NJ Transit spokeswoman said.
