As COVID bites again, precautions are tightening in public transportation. Gov. Andrew Cuomo told his briefing Monday he is expanding a mandatory vaccination policy for state workers and employees of state-run hospitals to include Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers., and he urged other transportation agencies to follow.
Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Public Affairs Director Helen Tederous said the authority and unions are talking about the new rules from Albany.
"We are working with various folks, here, both at the NFTA and externally, kind of to talk about what that looks like and the policy and procedure that will be accepted and be something that we impose," she said. "Still, since we're reviewing that policy and working on how we're going to implement it."
Tederous said more than half of authority staff are vaccinated. She said staff masking continues inside authority facilities for those who have not been vaccinated and members of the public who visit.
"It was revised a bit a few months ago when we imposed a policy where if an employee has a vaccination record, that they get a special sticker on their ID and they do not have to wear a mask inside the NFTA. Outside, we all have to wear masks and our operators have to wear masks at all times."
Tederous said even mechanics in bus and rail shops have to wear masks unless they are far away from other workers,
Authority employees, like Metro Bus and Rail drivers, often have heavy exposure to the public. In the pit of the pandemic, not only were drivers masked, but there were restrictions on the number of riders and they were all supposed to use bus back doors, keeping them far away from the person behind the wheel.
