I want my Blue Line car to be busy again

Marlyn DuMont, 40, has been a Blue Line operator for 12 years.

They were pretty good at providing us with PPE, anything we asked for. Even coming out and spraying the trains, cleaning them, for passengers and ourselves. They provided us with hand sanitizers and masks. Throughout the pandemic, we felt more and more comfortable.

We’ve gotten used to the low ridership. We look over at the Wonderland parking lot, and it’s sad. A parking lot that used to be full, where people were trying to find a parking space, it looks like a weekend parking lot.

Summer’s coming, we’ve got the vaccines, people are sick of being home, the weather’s going to be beautiful. Hopefully we can get to the point where we can celebrate the Fourth of July. We’re looking forward to getting busy, and hopefully it’s sooner than later. I think we all want it and are waiting for it to get back to normal.

For people that aren’t used to riding the T, it may be more scary. But I have to say, people are pretty good about wearing the masks as passengers. I see everybody respecting each other, and we haven’t had any issues where people really are complaining about the mask situation.

I could see a situation — it’s funny, because we were just having this conversation in the break room — where a year, two years from now, we’ll still see people wearing masks, and it will be more because they feel comfortable and they want to wear it, especially around flu season.

We’re doing a reduced schedule on the Blue Line. Hopefully that doesn’t last long, and hopefully we get to a normal schedule, and we see some of the passengers we’re used to seeing every morning and that we say hello to.