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That didn't last long: Mask requirement lifted on the T and at Logan
By adamg on Tue, 04/19/2022 - 4:04pm
MassDOT just announced, that with one exception, people who use the T can doff their masks:
Beginning today, the mask mandate on MBTA vehicles and MBTA properties will be lifted for all MBTA customers. Masks will still be required by users of The RIDE paratransit services.
In line with updated guidance from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), travelers using the Commonwealth’s Massport facilities are no longer required to wear face coverings. This includes airports, Conley Terminal, and the Logan Express service.
The T added:
Customers are no longer required to wear a mask on MBTA vehicles, or at stations or facilities if they choose not to; however, if people feel more comfortable wearing a facemask, then by all means continue to do so. The MBTA remains committed to safety and will continue adhering to all CDC and Massachusetts’ public health guidance.
The T is continuing to clean vehicles and stations regularly and upgrade air filtration systems.
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Comments
Face coverings required on all vehicles..
I won’t have to listen to that woman drone on about masks on the new Orange Line cars anymore? The same announcement, twice between every station. This is even better than the day they announced the Pfizer vaccine!
Sorry to bother you with the
Sorry to bother you with the health and well-being of others on the T. Personally wearing a mask to protect myself and others was never that much of a burden.
Still not as bad as
"Pay your fare; it's only fair." Barf.
It's called Bruins.
It's called Bruins.
As of this evening..
.. the announcement is still running on the Red, Blue and Green lines. Can't speak for Orange. At the rate the MBTA rolls out changes, I expect to hear the mask woman through at least July.
There's still at least one Red Line car/train
With the annoying "Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary" announcement.
Still playing on the new Orange Line cars
Or at least the one I took this morning.
As a longtime regular of the
As a longtime regular of the Orange line from Forest Hills to North Station, I definitely feel more comfortable wearing my mask. There's a lot more than Covid's lingering variant relatives that just won't leave that are in the air and sprawled out across 5 seats snoring mouthed and a stench that's kickin' .
I wonder how this going to play out?
Overseas April 11: Airlines that dropped mask requirements are now suffering staff shortages due to COVID-19
I’m sure that one thing has nothing to do with the other and things will work out just fine here in the US.
A few flight cancellations
A few flight cancellations is a tiny price to pay for freedom.
But honestly if the problem is staffing shortages, then the tight labor market is the most likely reason, but it's easier for a company to blame COVID then to admit their employees are quitting after finding better jobs.
sometimes your posts are closer to satire
than they are to snarky free market conservatism or whatever you’re going for
They're not quitting
They're out sick.
A few flight cancellations is
A few more thousands of people dead is a tiny price to pay for freedom, am I right?
What the hell is so freedom-infringing about masks, as opposed to, say, pants, shirts, and shoes, most of which are required in most places of public accommodation?
Maybe God will save us...
So the MBTA is following the advice of Judge Kathryn Kimble Mizelle (0 medical expertise) and the TSA (0 pandemic/epidemic expertise) over Doctor Anthony Fauci (Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President) and the CDC (the nation's premiere health promotion and preparedness agency)? I'm still wearing a mask on the T.
Ain't bureaucracy grand! /s
The T has no choice
There is no state of emergency declared at the local, state, or federal level. The T can not just independently decide to set their own policies for something as significant as mandating riders wear a mask across the entire system.
Governor Baker, the MA legislature, US Congress, and perhaps even Mayor Wu can mandate such things via emergency powers or regular lawmaking. But none of these groups have done so. Even the Biden administration has declined to file for an emergency stay of the Florida ruling.
Bureaucracy is a good thing! It means that agencies can't just decide to create policy without following a specific, defined procedure as outline in law. You want this. It's what protects civil rights.
If you want a mask mandate (and lots of good reasons to want one) you should be angry with your democratically elected leadership for not doing their job and crafting laws that mandate one directly or specifically give agencies like the MBTA the right to make that decision on their own.
The T can not just
I’m not sure I buy this line of argument. The T can independently set policies such as no eating, nudity, or playing loud music on the train, can’t they?
At the very minimum they
At the very minimum they should have asked the T's union to vote on it.
Wednesday's data
red line to 88 bus, everybody but one person wearing a mask. 88 bus to red line, everybody but two people wearing a mask. On my last bus, the driver thanked everybody who got on for wearing a mask.