Amtrak to require masks starting Monday to avoid spread of coronavirus

"The safety of Amtrak's customers and employees is our top priority."

• By David Schaper, NPR

(Washington) — Amtrak is the latest transportation provider to require all passengers to wear facial coverings or masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, beginning Monday.

The intercity passenger rail agency joins most of the nation’s passenger airlines and many public transit systems in requiring coverings or face masks on passengers.

Customers will have to “wear a facial covering over their nose and mouth while in stations, on trains and thruway buses,” Amtrak says in a news release. “Facial coverings can be removed when customers are eating in designated areas, in their private rooms, or seated alone or with a travel companion in their own pair of seats. Small children who are not able to maintain a facial covering are exempt from this requirement.”

“The safety of Amtrak’s customers and employees is our top priority,” says Amtrak President and CEO Bill Flynn in a statement, “and requiring a facial covering is one more way we can protect everyone,” he said.

To maintain physical distancing onboard trains, Amtrak is limiting booking to half of each train’s normal capacity, making it easier for passengers to sit farther apart. Amtrak is also temporarily going cashless in stations and on trains, to limit contact between customers and employees.

In addition, Amtrak is taking extra steps to better clean and sanitize trains and stations.