COVID-19 Impacts on Logan, MBTA, and Boston travel and tourism

jklo said:
I have a feeling that one of the Big Name airlines is going to go under.
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One? I'd expect multiple. All complain that bookings have collapsed faster and wider than they did for Sept 11 (which bankrupted US Airways by August 2002 and United by Dec 2002)

It is true that we have fewer airlines--fewer weak members of the herd--but the pattern is generally that they come in clumps.
 
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England and Ireland have now joined the Schengen countries. As was point out immediately after the first ban, someone in France could fly to London, and onward to the U. S. without difficulty.
 
Arlington said:
One? I'd expect multiple. All complain that bookings have collapsed faster and wider than they did for Sept 11 (which bankrupted US Airways by August 2002 and United by Dec 2002)

It is true that we have fewer airlines--fewer weak members of the herd--but the pattern is generally that they come in clumps.
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All of the airlines were relatively strong before this disaster.
 
Amtrak reducing frequencies to a Saturday frequency on the Northeast Corridor and Keystone services. That's a cut of about 35 percent.
 
Arlington said:
One? I'd expect multiple. All complain that bookings have collapsed faster and wider than they did for Sept 11 (which bankrupted US Airways by August 2002 and United by Dec 2002)

It is true that we have fewer airlines--fewer weak members of the herd--but the pattern is generally that they come in clumps.
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Arlington -- at Today's Press Conference [Saturday PM]:
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who did most of the negotiations with the House Democrats said:
  1. That this was only the 2nd Inning and maybe 3rd [1st having been the $8.3B Emergency Funds for vaccines, antivirals, tests, etc.] of a long game
  2. With the Declaration of State of Emergency [Friday noon] freeing up disaster relief funds
  3. and the Bill passed last night by the House with strong bipartisan support and still to be passed by the Senate on Monday dealing with lower-tier workers [people without contracts and benefits] and some of the middle class and small businesses who could be hit with 14 day quarantines
  4. The COVID-19 working team was looking at specialized situations for subsequent "bites at the Apple" where there might be need for targeted 0% Interest short term loans [e.g. Cruise Ships, Airlines, Hotels] to enable them to ride-out the next couple of months when all of their business is on hold
Moral of the story is that we learned a lot from the after effects of 9/11, Katrina, and other major disasters and how to quickly get back on a growing track
 
The airlines will struggle yes, but will be OK in the long run (most of them). They are a commodity. Warren Buffet actually doubled down and said he will not sell any airlines stock, perhaps buy more of it in an interview last week.
Most airline balance sheets are in good shape and they have more runway (no pun intended) than they may express to the media.
 
falcon42 said:
The airlines will struggle yes, but will be OK in the long run (most of them). They are a commodity. Warren Buffet actually doubled down and said he will not sell any airlines stock, perhaps buy more of it in an interview last week.
Most airline balance sheets are in good shape and they have more runway (no pun intended) than they may express to the media.
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I’m tempted to snatch up some royal caribbean or norwegian cruise stock right now.
 
Reduced T Service starts tomorrow

Updated Monday, March 16, 2020, 12:27 PM

At the start of service on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, trains and buses will run with reduced service to support efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. In addition, we have increased cleaning and sanitation at stations and on vehicles.
Service changes will help riders and employees avoid large crowds and allow for social distancing. These decisions are based on guidance from public health professionals and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH).
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Click through to see the plans. Generally, it's a Saturday schedule on all rail service going forward.
 
Yeah, I just looked through the commuter rail schedules. Most are down to two or one rush hour peak direction trips -- the Providence Line does a little bit better, but not by much. Almost every train makes every Saturday stop -- no expresses from what I can see.

One upside I see is that, I assume, most remaining commuters work in healthcare and retail, and so are more likely to have work schedules that don't fit the 9-5 model; so, the upside is that while the frequency is lower (e.g. 3 hour headways off-peak), service continues throughout the day (although less so in the earliest morning, but still otherwise available late into the evening). So, workers in that situation won't be as severely screwed as they could have been.

The obvious concern is whether or not reducing service will increased crowding and raise risk of contagion.
 
Someone explain to me how running less trains "will help riders and employees avoid large crowds and allow for social distancing"


I'd love to see the math on that one.

IE: Lowell reduced from 26 to 8 trains.

One (1) train arriving in Boston before 9:30am vs 8 today.
 
jass said:
Someone explain to me how running less trains "will help riders and employees avoid large crowds and allow for social distancing"
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The MBTA is going to be shut down soon I bet. Same with Logan.
 
Friday turnstile count at one of the MBTA subway stations, can't remember which, was down 48 percent from the previous Friday.
 
jklo said:
The MBTA is going to be shut down soon I bet. Same with Logan.
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I don't see how you completely shut down the T -- too many people rely on it for access to food shopping, pharmacies and healthcare -- people who cannot afford to take an Uber or Lyft.
 
  • Are they still running the zipper lane on 93? If yes, why?
  • While ridership is down, the T damn well better take this opportunity to take all the spare time they have for catching up on maintenance, working out the kinks on the new trains, etc.
 
From browsing twitter it appears that only WMATA and MBTA have cut service. Shame on them.

BART is even adding cars to short trains to let people have more distance between them. MTA announced they will keep running full service for the same reason.
 
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