DETROIT (AP) - Fare collection that was halted a year ago on public buses in Detroit due to concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 virus will resume.
Detroit’s Department of Transportation and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation also will increase rider capacity following modifications on buses to protect drivers and passengers, the city said Wednesday.
Passengers on both systems will have to start paying again March 15 to ride. Both agencies suspended fare collections last March to limit exposure between drivers and passengers.
Riders also will begin boarding buses through the front doors. They had been boarding through the rear doors.
Permanent barriers will separate drivers and riders and hand sanitizing machines will be installed. Riders still will be required to wear masks over their mouths and noses.
Detroit Transportation department drivers were among the first essential workers in the city to receive vaccines for the virus.
Some passengers were stranded and bus service was canceled for a day last March after Detroit bus drivers concerned about catching the virus didn’t show up for work.
A bus driver who complained on a video on Facebook about a passenger coughing on him died last April from COVID-19.
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