Many Americans at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago were afraid to go near people, which kept the thought of using public transportation far from their minds. But as the pandemic wore on, things began to change.

New Yorkers may remember restrictions placed on where we could go and when, which, according to the Federal Transit Administration, eliminated more than 80% of the ridership between April 2019 and April 2020.

It was a learning curve, and one that hasn’t been forgotten.  

“We were all in a moment of, what’s next?” said Jaime Kazlo, of the Capital District Transportation Authority.  

As life during a global pandemic became reality, the mission for those involved in public transportation became clear.

“It was a matter of putting measures in place that was making riding safe for the public and making riding safe for our operators as well,” Kazlo recalled.  

The evolution of bus transit included things like rear-door boarding with drivers enclosed behind the wheel, and more strategic routing.  

“Wound places where we could enhance service, servicing hospitals, servicing pharmacies, servicing grocery stores,” Kazlo said. “Making sure that we were connecting essential employees to those essential industries that could not stop.”  

It's a similar story on the railways.  

“You had a rush for a few days of everyone trying to get home,” said Gary Prophet, of the Empire State Passenger Association (ESPA). “Whether it was Poughkeepsie to New York, or Buffalo to Albany, or Albany to Chicago or whatever.”  

From there, ridership plunged for almost two years.

A rather quick rebound, though, that ESPA attributes to people making up lost time and more people working from home, giving them ability to live further away from their offices.  

“So you had a huge boost in ridership, for example, May 2023 to May 2024 from Albany down to New York, and also west of Albany, you had high ridership going out to Buffalo,” Prophet said.

Today, Amtrak ridership is more than 20% higher than it was in 2019, according to Prophet, while Metro-North and the subway system has recaptured more than 80% of its ridership.  

The FTA reports that bus ridership saw the fastest, most complete recovery, and there was a common takeaway.

“We had an industry that had to show up every day, no matter what was happening in their life," Kazlo said. "So I think shining a light on just the resilience of people."