Bus driver Monique Fletcher’s late-night runs on Brooklyn’s B63 and B70 routes have become a vital connection in the city’s fight against the coronavirus.
“My bus runs through four different hospitals. I’m the only bus that can get them close to their destination,” Fletcher, 47, told The Post.
“You’re doing a small part in helping the bigger picture, so they can get to the hospital so they can help the sickest person they could find.”
Fletcher — a second-generation, 16-year transit employee — works the graveyard shift, but says “I love my job,”
“Being a bus operator combines all the things I like. I love driving, and I’m a people person, so it works for me.”
With ridership down as much as 90 percent on city transit, hospital workers are some of the only late-night commuters left.
“I have a few nurses and a few home health aides that ride that bus a lot of times. They are very, very grateful,” she said.
“They tell me about the chaos, how the emergency room is overflowed. It’s taken a toll on them as well.”
Fletcher said she has “an encyclopedia worth of stories to tell.”
She takes comfort in her relationship with one frequent passenger who walks with a cane.
Fletcher lets the man sit in the front of the bus, which is roped off to most passengers in order to protect drivers from catching COVID-19, but is more accessible.
“He appreciates it, and says I’m the only bus operator that does that,” she said.
“I treat people the way I want to be treated. I don’t get home at 10:30 in the morning to be nasty to anybody.”
At night, Brooklyn’s streets are empty, except for police officers every few blocks — which Fletcher said give her peace of mind.
She said she’s proud to be able to serve the city in such a devastating moment.
“I get a lot of older essential workers. A lot of people going to Staten Island, who probably have to be at work at 7, but you see them at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning,” she said.
“When it’s all set in done, and it’s in the history books, you can say you helped get to the promised land.”
