Coronavirus Update: Officials Cancel Weekend SMART Train Service In Wake Of Shelter-In-Place
SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) -- Officials with Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit have temporarily cancelled weekend service because of the shelter-in-place ordered in seven Bay Area counties and the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Weekend service is scheduled to resume April 11. Marin County is one of the seven counties where residents have been ordered to shelter-in-place for three weeks starting Tuesday.
Trains will operate normally during weekdays and any changes will be considered on a daily basis.
"We will continue to operate" through this pandemic, SMART spokesperson Julia Gonzalez said. "We have many people in our community who are transit dependent."
She said many people need to get to the grocery store and health care appointments. The trains were being cleaned midday and again in the
evening. Two dispensers of hand sanitizer have been installed on each train car.
SMART ridership is down lately, as it is for most all of the region's transit agencies. Gonzalez said that 3,256 people rode SMART on Feb.
27. Two weeks later, ridership was off by 29 percent. Gonzalez linked the decline to the number of people staying home because of the virus.
