I visited the Nevada Northern last week and rode their Wednesday morning excursion train. While face masks were not required on the shop tour and most other locations on the property, the wearing of masks was strictly enforced on the excursion train. There were only about 10 riders total on the train, and mask wearing was even enforced on the open air car with 3 riders.

Does Nevada Northern fall under the national regulations that still require masks on all modes public transportation since it's still connected to the national rail network? This is not a criticism of their excellent operation and I didn't mind wearing a mask, I was just curious about why on board the train was the only place mask wearing was required.

Nevada Northern is a real treasure! I'm glad I went!

The Nevada Nothern is under the jurisdiction of the FRA, so the crews would fall under the FRA mask mandate.

I am not sure about the passengers

It is not a FRA rule, but a TSA rule. I wrote about it in the latest issue of the newsletter of the Northern Ohio Railway Museum. We are a trolley museum and this rule applies to us also. The pictures are from a recent pre-opening of the Museum trip for Scouts working on their railroading merit badge.


Car 12 Riders Will Need Masks
By Steve Heister

On January 21st, President Biden issued an executive order promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel. This Transportation Security Administration (TSA) order went into effect on February 1st.

The practical side of the order is that you needed to wear a face mask on airplanes, trains, buses, subways, and light rail, to name a few. The list is very detailed.

So how does this affect Car 12 running back and forth on our couple thousand feet of electrified track? In the rail section of the order, in great detail, its states who needs to follow the order. Here is the line that is of interest to the Museum, "Each tourist, scenic, historic, and excursion rail owner/operator, whether operating on or off the general railroad system of transportation". They offer this further definition in the order so there is no confusion concerning the above entry, "Tourist, scenic, historic, or excursion operation means a railroad or bus operation that carries passengers, often using antiquated equipment, with the conveyance of the passengers to a particular destination not being the principal purpose".

That pretty much defines our ride on Car 12. The Heritage Rail Alliance has studied the order. They came to that same general conclusion and recommended that member organizations follow the order. When issued, the order was set to expire on May 11th. However, on April 30th, the TSA extended the order to September 13th.

So, this summer come out to ride Car 12, but bring your mask. It will be like riding a streetcar during the 1918 Flu Pandemic. Car 12 was around for that event. But she was known as 1212 then! See you on the trolley.

https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/

From what I can tell (I am not a statistics person), in that region of Nevada in a group of around 50 people there is at least a 25% chance someone will have covid right now, or roughly 1 in 4.

Actually, it's both. The TSA mandates wearing of masks by passengers. FRA emergency order #32 mandates wearing of masks by railroad personnel.

Yet of all places, the Strasburg Rail Road does not currently require a mask on the train (for those who are vaccinated): https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/covid ... an-phase-3

So then Strasburg is non-compliant?

We were recently going to to visit a train ride. We checked their online and social media presence for information, and most of their recent updates were whining about how it was President Biden's fault that you had to wear a mask at their location and not their fault. We decided we wouldn't go there after that. If they would have simply said it was due to the FRA, or the government, etc. we would have been okay. But when you whine and complain, and blame someone else it's very off-putting.

Strasburg is still requiring masks for employees so perhaps they value the FRA more than the TSA?

If the TSA rule is as clear as Steve made it out to be below, it’s pretty bold of Strasburg to go against it but all of these rules have confused me since day 1 so maybe there’s something I’m missing.

It actually was Biden though who pushed for mask wearing on transportation and in anywhere that the Federal govt. has jurisdiction. So they were not wrong.

Everywhere else is relaxing restrictions and the Feds extend the order. That in itself is concerning, but to September? Thats well over three months from now. There is no evidence nor do the trends indicate that it has to be extended until September.

If I recall, the order was extended during the end of April with the September date likely picked as a catch-all. If the trends continue downward, nothing says they can’t modify or rescind the order since the decisions were made based on CDC data at that point in time. I can understand the Fed’s position since freight railroads are vital and packing people into any form of mass transit without precautions is counterproductive during a pandemic. It would be advantageous to our industry if the TSA/FRA would take a look at tourist operations separately since we’re not really a form of public transportation taking masses of people from Point A to Point B and beyond.

We have the same issue on the Nevada Southern in Boulder City. While most of southern Nevada has relaxed and mask use is not required, we still have to enforce it on our platform and on the train. We periodically have arguments with passengers, but the order from the TSA is in the crew bulletins book, and I understand from the director, the TSA visited us in person to give us the guidance.

For what it is worth - I have heard several stories so far from professional railroaders I know about the FRA visiting and enforcing the masks in terminals pretty strictly, including one trainmaster being walked off the property for not enforcing it. Naturally, I imagine it all boils down to your local guy, but still..

A friend mentioned since the mandates have been lifted in several Midwest states now, that mask wearing has essentially gone out the window on his RR.

Federally established rules from agencies like the FRA and TSA represent minimum requirements for compliance. Operating rules are a good example. Rules from GCOR or NORAC can expand upon the federal rules as do timetable and special instructions issued by the individual RR company. You can add to the established federal rules but not subtract. So, if the federal rule says to wear masks, you have to do it. I would suggest posting copies of the federal mask regulations along with the names of the agencies that published them in highly visible locations such as your platform and inside your coaches. This gives you the chance to provide the visitor/customer a reference without having to dig through your grip or rulebook.

They’ve (the state) lifted the mask mandate here in Connecticut for unvaccinated residents. Some businesses continue to require masks on their premises. I carry a mask with me just in case. I look for signage requiring masks prior to entry and if none are present, I proceed without wearing a mask. I haven’t experienced any trouble.

Is wearing a mask really that hard?

Why not just wear them? , sure national mask mandates are slowly being dropped, but if it makes the tourist operation even 10% safer, then why not ? Would you rather it be like last year where there were long term questions of when tourist lines could even operate again.

In my opinion wearing a mask is well worth being able to operate the trains with relative confidence of not creating a health problem.

From the virus's point of view, what is the difference between a transit vehicle and a tourist railroad's car (with similar passenger configuration) hauling the same number of people over a similar distance?

The biological opportunity for infection does not depend on what organization is operating the vehicle, so why should there be justification for different rules for tourist railroads?