The lives of thousands of daily passengers on Metro-North are being jeopardized by the railroad’s refusal to enforce federal and state safety rules requiring face masks, according to the Connecticut Commuter Action Group and the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council in a joint announcement.
Here’s most of the news release from the two groups:
Writing to Governor Lamont, the leaders of the independent CT Commuter Action Group and state-created CT Commuter Rail Council appealed to the Governor to safeguard passenger safety by having authorities issue citations to those refusing to wear masks.
“Metro-North says it wants passengers to come back to the trains but their refusal to issue a single ticket to mask scofflaws says the opposite,” said Jim Cameron of the CT Commuter Action Group. [Cameron is a Darien resident.]
“Metro North clearly needs to do a better job with mask enforcement if they wish to motivate and convince riders that rail transportation is safe to use. The Commuter Council continues to make that request however nothing seems to change.” noted Jim Gildea, chairman of the state-created CT Commuter Council.
Both advocates called on the Connecticut Department of Transportation to require Metro-North, the state’s vendor, to enforce the masking rules. To date, not a single citation has been issued to offenders by MTA Police, despite the rise in cases of the COVID Delta Variant.
“We cannot act on the honor system,” says Cameron. “One unmasked passenger claiming he’s vaccinated can put hundreds of commuters and staff at risk. Posters, PSA’s and PA announcements are no longer enough. We must have enforcement.”