Rock Region METRO Statement on COVID-19 Exposure Risk Reduction Measures and Transit Service

Rock Region METRO is committed to working with the community to maintain vital public transit service during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak while taking additional measures to reduce exposure risk to riders and staff members.

It has been a standard practice to sanitize vehicles; offer on-board hand sanitizer stations to riders and hand sanitizer stations at the River Cities Travel Center (the downtown Little Rock local bus station); offer an on-site, full-time janitor at the travel center; and offer METRO drivers and other employees hand sanitizer stations and disposable gloves at each METRO property prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. These measures will continue. In addition, METRO has purchased special machines to fog sanitizer product into fleet vehicles nightly and has increased its fleet sanitation schedule, wiping down all high-touch surfaces daily. METRO is also increasing sanitation procedures at each METRO property to reduce the risk of virus exposure for employees.

Currently, METRO transit services are in regular operations. Should METRO be forced to reduce service, priority will be given to service for area dialysis patients, some of whom rely on METRO fixed bus and paratransit service to get to multiple weekly appointments. As with all service alerts, riders may find service alerts at the top of all webpages at rrmetro.org, within the free METROtrack smartphone app and at rrmetrotrack.org.

“Our service is taking health care workers to their jobs, patients to health care appointments and families to needed social services organizations every day, and those services are still in critical need during this outbreak. We are encouraging our employees to practice good hygiene so we can meet the critical mobility needs of central Arkansans,” said Charles Frazier, METRO executive director. “As we move forward, we will keep riders aware of any service changes and ask for patience in advance in the event that service reductions need to be made in the future.”

To stay informed and help reduce risk exposure and practice social distancing, METRO has the following tips for riders: Sign up for the free METRO enewsletter at the bottom of rrmetro.org, follow @rrmetro on social media, download the free METROtrack smartphone app and check it for service alerts, download the free Token Transit smartphone app to purchase bus passes remotely (caregivers can use tokenttransit.com to send passes to loved ones’ smartphones) and find how-to-ride information at rrmetro.org/metro-transit-101. Finally, email METRO at info@rrmetro.org with questions or concerns.