patrick.net

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-05-12/working-from-home-has-fewer-commuters-on-buses-and-trains

While President Joe Biden pushes for $2.3 trillion in infrastructure spending with billions for mass transit, operators of commuter rail and buses are fretting over a burgeoning work-from-home culture that threatens to depress revenue for years after the pandemic.

Before the white-collar American workday became a homebound litany of video meetings with a backbeat of tumble-drying laundry, almost 12% of workers in the largest metropolitan areas were mass-transit commuters, according to the U.S. Census. Just 45% of ridership is back nationally, according to the American Public Transportation Association, even as the U.S. averages 2.2 million Covid-19 shots per day and major cities are reopening.

Public transportation depends on the ability to crowd trains and buses with enough passengers to cover costs.