This has been a brutal year for all frontline workers who have been forced to weigh the risks of working during a global pandemic. That’s true for healthcare providers, grocery staffers, retail and restaurant workers—and TriMet bus operators.

The Mercury recently spoke with one TriMet bus operator about what it’s like to provide public transit in 2020. The conversation touches on lost pay due to cuts in bus service, TriMet’s ongoing tense union contract negotiations, and inconsistent mask wearing on public transit. We've agreed to keep the driver's name anonymous so that he could speak freely without fear of repercussions.

Mercury: You were a full-time bus operator before the pandemic, and continue to be one. TriMet saw a huge dip in ridership when the pandemic hit in March—how did you experience that as an operator, and how has it changed over the course of the year?

At first [during the pandemic], you went from having full buses, particularly at rush hour, to having nothing. You’d be driving a route and you’d get maybe six people in the whole run, when you normally would’ve gotten a full bus.

That has, unfortunately, not stayed the same. People are riding the bus more and more and more, to the point that we are actually hitting the ludicrously high number of 24 people per bus sometimes.

What happens when you hit the 24-person capacity limit?

We are supposed to put the overhead "BUS AT CAPACITY" sign up, and only let people on or off as we have room. But if three people get off at a stop, and there’s five people standing at a bus, we have to take them all—we can’t pick and choose, we’re not allowed to do that.

It’s frustrating. That doesn’t happen too often...mostly it’s a rush-hour thing—but it does happen.

When did you notice buses were getting more full?

About when summer started rolling around is when people seemed to stop taking any real precautions, other than wearing a mask. Since summer, it’s been pretty constant.

[Editor’s note: TriMet’s numbers reflect that trend. While ridership numbers are nowhere near pre-pandemic levels, they have for the most part been gradually trending up since June.]

Obviously you can’t always tell why people are riding the bus, but what does it seem like to you? Are most people using it for essential trips?

I would say most of the people are on the bus with good reason. You have people who are going to work, people grocery shopping. A lot of people who are homeless folks just trying to stay warm, because it’s cold out.

You do occasionally get people on the bus who don’t really have anywhere to go, in terms of actual errands. They get off and go to a restaurant—and they do it without a mask on. Mask compliance is a big problem.

TriMet provides free disposable masks for any riders that don't have them, but it sounds like that doesn't translate to every rider using one. How many people do you estimate either don’t wear a mask on the bus, or wear one improperly?

I’d say a third to half of riders either don’t wear a mask or wear a mask improperly. Some people will either be wearing it with their nose hanging out, or they will get on the bus, pay their fare, walk all the way back to their seat, and then put a mask on.

So it’s a fairly large number, and I’m not allowed to really do anything about that.

What do you mean you can’t do anything?

We are only supposed to make general announcements that face coverings are required. We are not allowed to confront individual passengers, or deny people service if people don’t wear masks.

That puts a lot of pressure on us, because a lot of the passengers get upset about that—not the ones not wearing a mask, but the ones who are wearing masks. Multiple times a week, I get people coming up, saying"‘Hey, this person’s not wearing a mask, can you make them get off or wear a mask?" And I have to tell them no, because I’m not allowed to do that.

It seems like that policy puts you in a difficult spot.

The reason TriMet will state is that it is designed to keep operators safe from assault—which is frustrating, because I have these conflicting sets of expectations. I have the expectation from the general public, which is that the operator’s there to keep you safe. On the other hand I have this expectation from management, which is that I am essentially just there to drive the bus, and make sure each individual passenger is happy. Which is not really doable.

The words they keep using at TriMet are "customer service, customer service," But it’s actually a public service—we have less latitude over passengers and dealing with disruptive behavior than the private transportation industry does.

TriMet has invested a lot in bus and MAX cleaning protocols this year. Does that seem to be working?

They have bus cleaners get on at the end of lines, and they wipe everything down. So the cleanliness of the buses doesn’t particularly concern me.

What does concern me is the airflow. We had a policy at first of driving with all the windows open, to bring in fresh air. And they’ve walked that policy back a little, for reasons I don’t understand. And now they’re saying that on the buses, you’re supposed to only open two to four windows on the front of the bus, and that the doors opening and closing are supposed to refresh the air… But I don’t trust that.

This year, TriMet’s union contract negotiations are happening against a backdrop of the pandemic. TriMet declared an impasse in November, because the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement over pay raises. How has that affected your morale?

Nobody at TriMet thinks very highly of management right now. And it’s not the usual ‘people not liking their boss’ thing. Management doesn’t seem to actually care about the safety of operators.

...The union sent a letter to Doug Kelsey, TriMet’s general manager, asking about hazard pay. We had a bunch of signs up at all of our facilities, "Heroes works here," [so we wanted to know why we weren’t getting hazard pay.] Kelsey’s response was glib.

[Editor’s note: You can read the entire response from Kelsey, sent in September, here. In it, Kelsey writes that TriMet can’t afford to pay hazard wages because of the economic impact COVID-19 has had on public transit, and points out that most other transit services in the region also have not used hazard pay.]

A lot of the measures that management has taken seem to be geared not so much towards increasing safety as towards increasing revenue per bus. Like increasing the bus limit to 24 people per bus.

...They cut service back in early spring, which caused a lot of problems. The way I would have done it would have been limiting the number of people allowed on buses, and then adjusting service accordingly, running buses more frequently. But they just cut off service for large parts of the day, [and] reduced the frequency of service.

Everything feels as though it has been less about public safety, and more about leveraging the crisis in order to cut costs and bus labor.

TriMet’s been very transparent about the fact that, like most other transit agencies, it’s facing a budget crisis because of the coronavirus. The annual budget passed this summer reflected that situation. Do you not believe the service reductions and other budget cuts were a necessary evil outside of the agency’s control?

As far as I’m aware, executive management is still getting their full paychecks. My pay was de facto cut by 20 percent this year—in order to avoid layoffs, they cut hours by 20 percent. This was framed as a victory for everyone because it avoided layoffs.

I’m not a financial expert, but I question the sincerity of that… I don’t accept that the way to cut costs is by reducing service and reducing hours for drivers.