Hours after the Department of Public Health issued a new advisory urging Massachusetts residents to stay home whenever possible, MBTA officials stressed that commuters should only travel by train and bus for essential trips. The T said customers should "avoid any and all unnecessary service," and that by doing so, the service that does remain will be available to health care workers, grocery store employees and other travelers who rely on public transit to get to jobs at the front line of fighting the coronavirus outbreak.

Schedules across the system are reduced amid plummeting ridership, though the T will add some new morning commuter rail trips on Wednesday specifically aimed at hospital employees who need to make 7 a.m. shift changes.