BOSTON (WHDH) - A massive budget gap might not be the only factor behind changing MBTA service schedules: rising COVID-19 infections among T staff could pose risks to the agency’s ability to keep the current level of vehicles running.
Sixty-three MBTA employees are ill with the highly infectious disease, up from about 50 cases last week, according to MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak.
While that is not as high as the peak of more than 100 active cases in mid-April, Poftak said the steady increase might reach a point where it cuts into transit service.
Agency officials typically estimate that for every active case involving a worker, there are two other employees impacted “who are either quarantining from contact tracing and testing protocols or waiting for the results of a test,” Poftak said.
“We are working to mitigate the impacts on workforce availability, but I do want to signal it is something we’re keeping our eye on and may have schedule impacts downstream depending on how this trend moves,” he said.
Keolis, which operates the commuter rail, has seen “significantly impacted,” Poftak said, though the data are less clear.
The agency will slightly decrease some headways — in each case adding less than a minute between trains — on the Red, Orange and Green Lines at peak hours this winter and will modify frequency on some bus routes, partly to help give some flexibility if employee absences increase.
MBTA employees and contractors can get tested on demand at an Everett facility on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
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