Concord Coach Lines will stop running passenger buses this weekend after learning passengers on some of its buses in New Hampshire were exposed to the coronavirus.
“We feel like we can and should support guidance that people should stay home and are concerned with the continued exposure of our employees and riders,” said company Vice President Benjamin Blunt in a statement. Service will resume after the public health threat from coronavirus has passed.
“We look forward to the day when we can resume our operations and support the travel of all our riders, but now is a time to stay home,” Blunt said.
The bus company will stop all service starting Saturday.
It ordinarily maintains a network running between 17 Maine towns and cities and Boston South Station and Logan International Airport. In 2018, more than 640,000 passengers rode on its Maine routes.
The company also will suspend buses between towns and cities in New Hampshire and Boston.
On Tuesday, New Hampshire health authorities warned the company about potential community exposure from someone with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus, who was a passenger on four buses between Boston and Concord between March 11 and March 16.
Drivers on those trips were taken off the job as soon as Concord was notified, and they have shown no symptoms in self-isolation, it said.
Concord last week reduced its schedule from 28 daily round trips between Portland and Boston to just eight, and scheduled only one round trip between Boston, Portland, Auburn, Augusta and Bangor.
The move was a reaction to an 80 percent drop-off in passengers over the previous two weeks. People have avoided nonessential travel and followed the government’s urging to stay at home and away from crowds to limit the spread of coronavirus.
The American Bus Association last week estimated economic disruption from the coronavirus pandemic would cost its industry $8 billion and threaten 100,000 jobs.
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