Here is the problem....there are a lot more details than people seem to want to know.

In March 2020, Fauci was telling people to not wear masks and that they were not really very effective. Fauci was providing Trump and other government agencies advice on what to do. The thousands of documents from Fauci and the CDC that have just come out show a lot of confusion and conflict on the entire matter. There is still a great deal of conflict on what is true and what is not, so the challenge is to find the facts.

The TSA and FRA have rules out right now. Whether they are based on politics or medicine, we really don't know. I do know that they have the authority and can fine, so that becomes the real issue at the moment.

Mr. Powell,
I would encourage you to visit the RMNE and am confident you’d enjoy your time there. I will be reaching out to you via private message as a courtesy to you and everyone else on the forum.

I knew someone at the CDC at the time when they said not to wear masks and she confirmed that they told the public this so there wouldn't be a run on masks so medical people could get their first. I was told that at the time, and that they were keeping that fact mum as there was no other alternative.
Yeah, I can see the logic there, especially what happened next for hording of supplies with the lockdowns, but they did themselves no favors in the long run as it made everyone question everything they heard after that.
That's true.
The problem is people want this thing to be done so badly, they'll listen only to that which supports what they want.
Hey, it's human nature. We all do it from time to time for something.
With the internet, any idiot could write any moronic thing that passed through their potentially empty cranium and others would eat it up (for the same reason we have a flat earth theory back after centuries of knowledge to the contrary), so no matter what you thought, you could find "evidence" to support it.
Me, I went with the lessons I learned in the military as we trained for a pandemic once, from doctors who'd handled pandemics in other countries and had survived them.
I make no apologies for my take on what's happening now, accordingly.

As I said PAGES ago, that's your default excuse.

If your patrons don't like it, tell them to get mad at the TSA and FRA. You have no control over this.

So why are we blathering?

On Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch he picks as the most sincere, and brings toys and presents to all the good little children of the world.......

Because it is a discussion forum, and that is what happens here. People express their opinions, some agree, some disagree. Both sides have valid points. Both sides are right and both sides are wrong, depending on your point of view.

It always strikes me as odd that people call for a thread to be closed when there is too much discussion happening!

I'm not calling for it to be shut down.

I'm just saying, given the absolutism of the TSA/FRA edicts, unless we're dealing with the WW&F, Wabash Frisco & Pacific, or the like, what room is there for discussion here, unless we are literally formulating a petition or court action to ask the agencies to reconsider?

Here in Denmark, we have made a lot of progress, but a press conference right now confirms that masks on public transport will be the last restriction to stop. Starting Monday, masks are no longer required in most public spaces, but will continue on public transport through the summer.

The strategy here is to have the whole country vaccinated by September, and right now 25% are fully vaccinated and 45% are partially vaccinated. There is a strict calendar based on age.

However, we have an enormous test and track infrastructure. Every town has a large, mass production test center where you can go without appointment and get a fast test, and a result, in an hour. The data is stored on the national health database, and we have a mobile phone app that displays the result. When you go to a restaurant, gym, or barber, you have to show the test result on your phone (or print it out on paper), and it can not be more than 72 hours old.

This "coronopas" will continue to September, and still be required for concerts and nightclubs through October.

Right now, our hospital admissions are on track to nearly zero.

ADM 4 makes a crucial point. If your operation comes under federal control and you want to stay compliant with the law then obey the mask mandate until it is lifted. period.

Our good friend from Denmark makes an excellent point as well. Sadly, our previous CIC made such a political football out of the pandemic that several states ( Florida,Texas) have banned making a vaccination passport a requirement for admission. Common sense would say that if you can show being fully vaccinated then you're safe to be around. Several large cruise operators are now working on alternative ports as they are determined to only carry fully vaccinated guests. My guess is that they'll probably move to the Port of Savannah if it can handle ships that large.

Darn shame the whole thing got so screwed up in America. It didn't need to be this way.

Ross Rowland

How do you conclude that "the whole thing got so screwed up in America," and that "it didn't need to be this way"?

How do I say that? Very straight forward. If Trump had not chosen to lie about the seriousness of the virus in the early stages when he had been told that it would be " the most serious threat to his presidency", but instead had told the nation the truth vs. " it's like the flue", " it will disappear when warm weather comes" and other nonsense there would undoubtedly be far less than 600,000+ American's dead.

IMHO his malfeasance was criminal and I hope somehow he is held accountable beyond it costing him his 2nd. term ( thank goodness !! ).

Ross Rowland

Wow, 8 pages of opinions on masking yet the answer to the original question is quite simple: Any tourist railroad falling under FRA jurisdiction is subject to the FRA/TSA mask mandate.

As much as I'd like express my opinions about masking/Covid, and offer my rebuttal to some of the previous comments, I won't. Why? Because this is a forum to discuss railway preservation and I'm not clear on how pointing fingers at one political party or the other is going to educate anyone about railway preservation.

Ditto.

Other way around. The government (CDC) made that stupid call. Fauci lowered his head and followed the company line, like a good foot soldier.



You can't argue with facts.

Some people amplify that confusion and conflict, because they are trying to poison those facts, so they *can* argue with them. It’s getting to where people are having trouble trusting *any* facts anymore.

This is America unhitching its wagon from the science and technology that made us the #1 economy.

But that's no accident, and despite appearances, the source isn't even domestic. Who on the world stage stands to benefit from America descending into internal conflict and unhitching its wagon from being the #1 economy? And whose style is it do to that to foreign countries? Those are the people turning us against each other. There's your conspiracy.