Mass transit is critical for many Americans to commute to and from work and to access essential goods and services. This guidance provides considerations for mass transit administrators to maintain healthy business operations and a safe and healthy work environment for employees, while reducing the risk of COVID-19 spread for both employees and passengers. Administrators should follow applicable guidance from the CDC and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)external icon for reducing workplace exposure. All decisions about following these recommendations should be made in collaboration with local health officials and other state and local authorities who can help assess the current level of mitigation needed based on levels of

COVID-19 community transmission and the capacities of the local public health and healthcare systems. CDC is releasing this interim guidance, laid out in a series of three steps, to inform a gradual scale up of activities towards pre-COVID-19 operating practices.  The scope and nature of community mitigation suggested decreases from Step 1 to Step 3.  Some amount of community mitigation is necessary across all steps until a vaccine or therapeutic drug becomes widely available.

Resuming Full Service

Safety Actions

Promote healthy hygiene practices (Steps 1-3)

  • Enforce everyday preventive actions such as hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes, and use of a cloth face covering by employees when around others, as safety permits. Provide employees with appropriate personal protective equipment as necessary and as available. Communicate with the public about the importance of hygiene, covering coughs and sneezes, and using cloth face coverings while using mass transportations, including posting signs in transit stations and vehicles on how to stop the spreadpdf icon of COVID-19, properly wash hands, promote everyday protective measurespdf icon, and properly wear a face coveringimage icon.
  • Ensure adequate supplies to support healthy hygiene behaviors for transit operators, employees, and passengers in stations, including soap, hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol, paper towels, tissues, and no-touch trash cans.
  • Post signs on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 properly wash hands, promote everyday protective measures, and properly wear a face covering.

Intensify cleaning, disinfection, and ventilation (Steps 1-3)

  • Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces (for example, kiosks, digital interfaces such as touchscreens and fingerprint scanners, ticket machines, turnstiles, handrails, restroom surfaces, elevator buttons) at least daily or between use as feasible.
  • Clean and disinfect the operator area between operator shifts.
  • Use touchless payment and no-touch trash cans and doors as much as possible, when available. Ask customers and employees to exchange cash or credit cards by placing in a receipt tray or on the counter rather than by hand and wipe any pens, counters, or hard surfaces between each use or customer.
  • Avoid using or sharing items that are not easily cleaned, sanitized, or disinfected, such as disposable transit maps.
  • Ensure safe and correct application of disinfectants.
  • Use gloves when removing garbage bags or handling and disposing of trash and wash hands afterwards.
  • Ensure that ventilation systems operate properly and increase circulation of outdoor air as much as possible such as by opening windows and doors. Do not open windows and doors if they pose a safety risk to passengers or employees, or other vulnerable individuals.
  • Take steps to ensure that all water systems and features (for example, drinking fountains, decorative fountains) are safe to use after a prolonged facility shutdown to minimize the risk of Legionnaires’ disease and other diseases associated with water.

Promote social distancing

Step 1 and Step 2

  • Institute measures to physically separate or create distance of at least 6 feet between all occupants to the extent possible. This may include:
    • Asking bus passengers to enter and exit the bus through rear doors, while allowing exceptions for persons with disabilities.
    • Closing every other row of seats.
    • Reducing maximum occupancy of buses and individual subway and train cars and increasing service on crowded routes as appropriate.
  • Provide physical guides to ensure that customers remain at least 6 feet apart while on vehicles and at transit stations and stops. For example, floor decals, colored tape, or signs to indicate where passengers should not sit or stand can be used to guide passengers.
  • Install physical barriers, such as sneeze guards and partitions at staffed kiosks and on transit vehicles to the extent practicable.
  • Close communal spaces, such as break rooms, if possible; otherwise, stagger use and clean and disinfect in between uses.

Step 3

  • Consider or continue instituting measures to physically separate or create distance between occupants.
  • Provide physical guides to help customers maintain physical distance while on vehicles and at transit stations and stops. For example, floor decals, colored tape, or signs to indicate where passengers should not sit or stand can be used to guide passengers.
  • Install or maintain physical barriers, such as sneeze guards and partitions at staffed kiosks and on transit vehicles to the extent practicable.

Train employees (Steps 1-3)

  • Train all employees in the above safety actions while maintaining social distancing during training.

Monitoring and Preparing

Checking for signs and symptoms (Steps 1-3)

  • Consider conducting daily health checks (e.g., temperature screening and/or symptom checking) of all employees.
  • If implementing health checks, conduct them safely and respectfully, and in accordance with any applicable privacy laws and regulations. Confidentiality should be respected. Employers may use examples of screening methods in CDC’s General Business FAQs as a guide.
  • Encourage staff who are sick to stay at home.

Plan for when an employee becomes sick (Steps 1-3)

  • Employees with symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, or shortness of breath) at work should immediately be sent home.
  • Inform those who have had close contact to a person diagnosed with COVID-19 to stay home and self-monitor for symptoms, and to follow CDC guidance if symptoms develop. If a person does not have symptoms follow appropriate CDC guidance for home isolation.
  • Establish procedures for safely transporting anyone sick to their home or to a healthcare facility.
  • Notify local health officials, staff, and customers (if possible) immediately of any possible case of COVID-19 while maintaining confidentiality consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)external icon and other applicable federal and state privacy laws.
  • Close off areas used by a sick person and do not use until after cleaning and disinfection. Wait 24 hours before cleaning and disinfecting. If 24 hours is not feasible, wait as long as possible. Ensure safe and correct application of disinfectants and keep disinfectant products away from children. Affected vehicles can be used immediately after cleaning and disinfection.
  • Advise sick staff members not to return until they have met CDC’s criteria to discontinue home isolation.
  • Implement safety practices for critical infrastructure workers who may have had exposure to a person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

Maintain healthy operations (Steps 1-3)

  • Implement flexible sick leave and other flexible policies and practices, if feasible.
  • Monitor absenteeism of employees and create a roster of trained back-up staff.
  • Designate a staff person to be responsible for responding to COVID-19 concerns. Employees and customers should know who this person is and how to contact them.
  • Create and test communication systems for employees and customers for self-reporting of symptoms and notification of exposures and closures.
  • Support coping and resilience among employees.

Adjusting Service

Steps 1-3

  • Coordinate with state and local health department officials about transmission in the area as frequently as possible and adjust operations accordingly.
  • Be prepared to consider adjusting services as appropriate if the community mitigation level increases in the local area.
  • Continue communication with staff and the public about decision-making.



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