The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced it is prepared for the safe return of New York City students to the transit system as in-person learning resumes, with nearly one thousand additional bus trips planned to begin on October 01, 2020, to help students travel to and from school. The MTA’s Mask Force will also be out across the system in October, providing free masks to students to help them stay safe and comply with the systemwide mask requirement. To date, more than 4 million free masks and tens of thousands of gallons of hand sanitizer have been made available to customers.

Students returning to public transit will notice subways and buses are being thoroughly disinfected, with subway cars having been disinfected nearly 3.3 million times, buses more than 584,976 times, LIRR cars 165,092 times and Metro-North cars 103,044 times. The measures come at a time when the MTA is facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with $12 billion in additional federal funding necessary to avoid service cuts and layoffs in the future.

“We look forwardto welcoming back students to our system and can’t wait for them to see all of the measures we have put in place to keep them safe, from mandating masks to the largest disinfecting program in agency history to adding hundreds of bus trips in every part of the city,” said Patrick J. Foye, Chairman and…