Metro is on a fact-finding mission so it can develop plans for increasing levels of rail and bus service as the D.C. region gradually reopens.
Questions for workers and their bosses explore:
- whether anyone in the business stopped traveling to work for an extended period between March and the present
- if anyone is teleworking
- whether different groups of people have staggered schedules alternating the time of day or days of the week
- what the timeline may be for people to return to work
“In order to be successful, we’ve got to be one step ahead of ridership,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. “I think that everyone wants to coordinate.
There are so many interdependent factors. Parents can’t make decisions about what they’re going to be doing on ‘return to work’ until they know if they’re going to have kids at home [who] they have to care for, and that’s dependent on decisions being made by the school systems. It’s all connected and we get it.”
And that’s why the transit agency designed plans to be adaptable.
As information is collected and the region’s intentions become more clear, Metro will be better positioned to decide exact dates for restoration of different levels of service and what that service might look like, Stessel said.
“It’s a simple questionnaire that takes a couple minutes to complete,” Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said at a May board meeting. “Every employer who has workers riding Metrorail or Metrobus is asked to go online and tell us when your workforce is returning on site.”
Metro realizes many business managers may be busy developing plans for restoration of service, so it’s welcoming input from employees, “anyone at all,” about what they’re hearing from bosses.
You can find the survey on Metro’s website.
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Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
