Mask requirements on Amtrak

[Cal]

Taking the Zephyr and LSL in January. Have a bedroom and a roomette. Someone said the "you can take your masks off if you are in bedroom or roomette with the door closed" language has been removed from the website. So, are you still allowed to take off the masks in your room?

If they can't see you, they can't stop you.

 

[neroden]

You're supposed to keep it on but in practice if you have the door closed and the blinds closed nobody is going to be doing "bed checks". And your chance of infecting someone else from within your closed room is pretty low given Amtrak's very high ventilation rate.

 

[flitcraft]

I get that people are tired of masking up whenever in public and around others. I am, too. But it is now beyond dispute that mask-wearing is both protective of the wearer and of others--particularly important now that we understand how many cases are asymptomatic but still capable of shedding enough virus be infectious. If I were on Amtrak on an LD train in coach, I'd definitely take advantage of every 'fresh air' break to walk well away from others and slip off the mask for a bit.

 

[jis]

Moderator's Note: Please restrict the discussion to Extension of the Mask Mandate with a focus on Amtrak in this thread.

 

[jebr]

Taking the Zephyr and LSL in January. Have a bedroom and a roomette. Someone said the "you can take your masks off if you are in bedroom or roomette with the door closed" language has been removed from the website. So, are you still allowed to take off the masks in your room?

The government order does not provide an exception to the mask mandate for travel in a private room on public transportation. This includes Amtrak roomettes and bedrooms.

That said, in my experience this year (when the language also did not have an exception for Amtrak roomettes or bedrooms) Amtrak staff did not worry about mask wearing while people were in their private sleeper accommodation so long as the door was closed. I had at least one which said that they weren't required in the rooms, but most simply told customers to wear their masks whenever outside of their private rooms (with the omission suggesting but not outright stating that they can be taken off in private rooms.) They are enforced in coach seating, however.

 

[denmarks]

Taking the Zephyr and LSL in January. Have a bedroom and a roomette. Someone said the "you can take your masks off if you are in bedroom or roomette with the door closed" language has been removed from the website. So, are you still allowed to take off the masks in your room?

As long as no one can see you I can't see why it matters. Just have it available. I will be traveling in April and I am sure not going to sleep in a mask with my door and drapes closed.

 

[Qapla]

I'm sure, even when traveling in coach, if someone takes their mask off while in the restroom no one will say anything ... after all, how will anyone know? The same would apply to sleepers.

 

[87YJ]

Or you can just wait until it's over, like me!

 

[Albi]

Who cares, just close your curtains to the hallway so you can't be seen from there.

 

[jis]

Moderator's Notes: We are planning to move the discussion on air filtration and circulation systems in planes and comparison with trains into a thread of its own in the Non-Rail Transport Forum. So please rest assured that those post will be preserved as they are moved to their own thread. As usual we will do this soon, and notify here when done leaving forward and backward links. Thanks for your understanding.

This move has now been completed, and the articles moved can be found at:

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/air-circulation-and-filtration-in-planes-and-trains.80559/

 

[pennyk]

MODERATOR's NOTE: The title of this thread has been changed to Mask Requirements on Amtrak. Please limit your posts to questions and/or discussion of mask protocol, etiquette or general mask requirements on Amtrak. Please avoid the general discussion of COVID in this thread or any other thread on Amtrak Unlimited. It is a site for Amtrak, rail transportation and other transportation primarily, and COVID in as much as it affect those secondarily.

Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[LookingGlassTie]

With ya 100%.

Biden doesn't seem to realize that by extending the mandate for all public transit (which includes Amtrak), he's kinda shooting himself in the foot where Amtrak is concerned. Especially because he talks so much about supporting the railroad, and trying to get as many people to take the train as possible.

 

[SarahZ]

Biden doesn't seem to realize that by extending the mandate for all public transit (which includes Amtrak), he's kinda shooting himself in the foot where Amtrak is concerned. Especially because he talks so much about supporting the railroad, and trying to get as many people to take the train as possible.

For every person who refuses to ride Amtrak because they have to wear a mask, you will have the same number of people (or more) who won't want to ride the train if people aren't wearing masks.

Is there any proof the mask mandate is actually affecting ridership?

 

[Qapla]

Even with the mask mandate I am not riding Amtrak until I feel it is safer - especially since I mainly ride coach.

 

[HammerJack]

For every person who refuses to ride Amtrak because they have to wear a mask, you will have the same number of people (or more) who won't want to ride the train if people aren't wearing masks.

Is there any proof the mask mandate is actually affecting ridership?

I would think # of people refusing to ride if there was no mandate > # of people refusing to ride while there is a mandate. Just my guess. If Amtrak were to remove the mandate tomorrow, I'd guess a lot of people would cancel.

 

[Abe26]

They should make one wagon mask optional , and then see how big the demand is...

 

[jis]

They should make one wagon mask optional , and then see how big the demand is...

That would break the TSA directive, so is quite unlikely.

 

[joelkfla]

What's a wagon mask?

 

[jis]

What's a wagon mask?

Read it assuming there is a comma after "wagon" and replace "wagon" by "car".

 

[SubwayNut]

The South Shore Line tried a mask optional car until September 2020 early in the pandemic when they were trying to avoid confrontations with passengers when local mask ordinances in some of the 4 Indiana counties plus the City of Chicago trains go through were just suggestions and not mandatory mask requirements.

It ended in a firestorm of national bad media publicity for the railroad when the main Streetsblog Chicago reporter was taking his bike on the train to go to Indiana Dunes and the bike car was also the mask optional car.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Trying to figure out why anyone would want to ride in a Mask Free Car with Omicron spreading like Wildfire.??

 

[flitcraft]

ying to figure out why anyone would want to ride in a Mask Free Car with Omicron spreading like Wildfire.??

Why do people drive without wearing seatbelts? Why do people ride bikes without helmets? Why do people ski in areas that have been blocked off due to avalanche danger? I believe Freud had an answer...

 

[Bob Dylan]

Why do people drive without wearing seatbelts? Why do people ride bikes without helmets? Why do people ski in areas that have been blocked off due to avalanche danger? I believe Freud had an answer...

I was being both Serious and Sarcastic!

We know Morons are with us always!
!

 

[PaTrainFan]

Trying to figure out why anyone would want to ride in a Mask Free Car with Omicron spreading like Wildfire.??

Because, everyone knows it's all fake. /s

 

[west point]

This poster is fully vaccinated with booster. But I am somewhat a higher risk medically that medics say that I have the possibility to get a crossover infection that should be considered. One out of 100 vaccinated will get Omicron and have to go to the hospital and may get very sick. That is why I want you to wear a mask to protect persons just like me. I certainly wear a mask to protect them!!