Public transportation was running on Monday morning with normal weekday service. New York City’s subways, buses and commuter trains “will operate during the entire pandemic” while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority seeks $4 billion in federal aid, said Patrick J. Foye, the chairman of the agency.
Mr. Foye said the M.T.A. reached an agreement with unions over the weekend to switch to having passengers board local buses through the rear doors to minimize contact between them and drivers.
“We have not changed our fare policy but we don’t expect to collect much revenue on local buses,” he said.
The authority also closed all ticket offices at Metro-North Railroad stations as a precaution, telling riders to use vending machines or its mobile app instead.
The agency now has 30 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its employees, Mr. Foye said. He said the agency’s buses, subways and commuter trains are safe to ride but are operating to carry health care workers, police officers, firefighters and transit workers to and from their jobs.
Mr. Foye said the agency borrowed $1 billion from “a leading international bank” on Friday by drawing down a line of credit. He said the agency had enough cash to operate but was in “a $4 billion hole” and needed aid from Congress soon.
“We planned for ridership declines but never anything like this,” Mr. Foye said.
Reporting was contributed by Jonah Engel Bromwich, Ashley Southall, Annie Correal, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Michael Gold, Joseph Goldstein, J. David Goodman, Jesse McKinley, Andy Newman, Azi Paybarah, Brian Rosenthal, Michael Rothfeld, Edgar Sandoval and Tracey Tully.
