Are you scared to take the train now?

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One person's "afraid" is another person's 'prudent." I won't be traveling on Amtrak (or otherwise) until I'm fully vaccinated, infection rates are down, and I'm confident in the preventive measures taken along the way--not just the trains, but the hotels and local transport. Then again, I don't have any upcoming travel that is critical--just wanting to see my granddaughter before she gets too old and "cool" to want to be around Grandma and Grandpa!
 
Like John Bredin, I'm waiting for more things to open up. That's the main thing, although I am also eagerly awaiting a vaccine for myself and my traveling partners. I have a condition that would make getting Covid19 very dicey and I have enough trouble as it is; I don't want more. In addition, because I have discovered other positive benefits of wearing a mask, I will likely continue wearing one in certain situations even after the pandemic is pacified. I'm guessing I'll get vaccinated at the end of March. 25% of New Mexicans have chronic conditions that put them at greater risk, so those with such conditions that work are likely to get vaccinated before me. I was mildly stunned to hear that 25% figure, but maybe I shouldn't have been surprised at all.
 
I've ridden NE corridor and many East Coast suburban trains since March. Of course I use a mask and stay as far away from people as possible. Would I ride LD? Yes but only in a Bedroom with my own toilet and shower. On boarding I would sanitize facilities with 70% alcohol. I do wish that compartment windows could be opened a couple of inches. Room temperature on Amtrak tends to be high and that worries me.
 
I’m not scared to take Amtrak, but I have no reason to travel and a potentially expose myself or others. I have taken a couple of trips on our local commuter rail system, but with transit ridership collapsing it is very easy to socially distance from others.

If I did have to travel long distances, I would feel safer in a private room on Amtrak than on an airplane. A few years ago I was on an American Airlines flight and the person next to me was quite clearly sick. A couple of days later I had the flu (and probably the worst cold/flu I remember having in my life).
 
junebug said:
Do you feel safe riding the train during COVID? I have not gotten the vaccine yet. I wish I could say I am comfortable with the thought of traveling, but coach on Amtrak scares me. So does a private room
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We rode the Empire Builder from Chicago to and from Glacier National Park in Sep 2020. At the time, there was no vaccine. We had two roomettes and ate in the dining car. We always were masked whenever we were outside the room or not eating. Conductors enforced masking and so social distancing and train occupancy was restricted. Amtrak has Covid protocols in place so we were not scared but we kept aware of our surroundings. Wiping and washing was the protocol. It was our first family train trip and was memorable and fun.
 
I think it's going to take a long time for discretionary travel to resume. Some seem to think it will be like flipping a switch once everyone is vaccinated. However, while fear may be a consideration for some, other factors will supersede it for all types of travel. Business travel should lead the recovery, but how much of it will go away because of the new methods of meeting, making sales calls, etc.? Capacity is going to be a problem - the airlines have already retired (not just stored) their largest planes and laid off significant numbers of staff, and I think we all agree that Amtrak has some issues in these areas along with making some discouraging moves in scheduling and dining. Will the government bailouts continue for the travel industry when people don't quickly return to the skies or the rails? If not, will some capacity and staffing reductions have to become the new norm? Also, with reduced capacity comes increased pricing. There may be some short-term bargains to lure passengers back, but if prices rise will people who've gotten used to less travel return? Many think Amtrak and VIA prices are already too high and a lot of people worldwide have had their savings gutted by investment collapse, so leisure travel - especially long distances may not be top-of-mind.

We all want Amtrak/VIA and other modes of travel to return to at least pre-pandemic levels. It's just that it may take years instead of weeks or months.
 
I have a MUCH higher chance of dying in a car crash on the way to and from work every day than I do of dying from Covid.

So no, I'm not scared, but I don't see the point in traveling right now since most things are closed. I also don’t want to risk catching it and spreading it to others who are higher risk.
 
I'm not traveling. I'm comfortable with Amtrak's private rooms, and with their mask enforcement. But the situation in any of the places I might *visit* is another matter entirely, and a lot worse. Same with some of the train *stations*.

Once I'm fully vaccinated, I'll reconsider, but at this rate that will be months from now. I'm "general population", not in any priority groups.
 
neroden said:
I'm not traveling. I'm comfortable with Amtrak's private rooms, and with their mask enforcement. But the situation in any of the places I might *visit* is another matter entirely, and a lot worse. Same with some of the train *stations*.

Once I'm fully vaccinated, I'll reconsider, but at this rate that will be months from now. I'm "general population", not in any priority groups.
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Even though Ive had both Shots as part of Group 1B ( Pfizer) and am tested regularly @ my work, I still will wait awhile to ride a Train for the same reasons.
 
Between having to deal with a mask 100% of the time while in any station (even outside platforms, I presume), riding the NEC, and while in public areas on an LD train (there's absolutely NO WAY I'll keep the mask on in my roomette!), I simply unwilling to put up with the <expletive deleted>. Throw in lousy food and significant LD price jumps in the past year or so, it will be a LOOOONNNNGGGG TIME before I ever board another Amtrak train!
 
I'm not scared to ride Amtrak. But there is no compelling reason for me to do so now. I don't travel in the winter, as I have an hour's drive to the nearest Amtrak station and would hate to schedule a winter trip only to be stranded at home due to the fickle winter weather here. So I don't travel this time of year anyway.
 
PaTrainFan said:
This is my desire. I have always traveled in spring/summer. My only hesitation is missing out on so much daylight time.
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I get my second shot Tuesday. My wife has had both. We will probably fly down to Fort Lauderdale beginning of March to see aging newborn Grandchild and close on a Condo. Should be somewhat protected by then (85%). We're old and have health conditions that would scare away a Vampire. Will double mask (97%), my wife prays (?%), and will roll the dice. Do I have moments of fear and indecision? Does the bear .... in the woods. My wife doesn't have this anxiety. Probably why I married her. Grandmotherhood is Strong. There is something out there that always wants to kill you, sometimes you have to stare the FEAR in the face, put on your Flak Jacket (mask, vaccine, common sense) and go on Patrol. Just our fate, everyone else has to make their own bed. 🤔😷😷
 
PaTrainFan said:
This is my desire. I have always traveled in spring/summer. My only hesitation is missing out on so much daylight time.
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I agree. I would LOVE to take the Starlight or Builder in the winner to see the beautiful snow. But I'd be missing out on so much daylight...

I did go on the Builder back in late October, and from Idaho to St Paul, there was snow on the ground. Glacier Park was beautiful with the snow.
 
There is no reason to be scared to travel. However, collectively it is better not to travel unless it is essential at this time.

Here is a nice article what you should be able to do and what you should not do after getting fully vaccinated and waiting two to three weeks after your second shot so that the highest level of immunity can kick in...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/03/health/after-covid-19-vaccine-safety-wellness/index.html
 
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I haven't been on a train since I arrived back in Rensselaer last March 1. That's probably the longest hiatus for me since the early '70s.

I would consider riding now if I really needed to get somewhere, but it just seems like a bad idea to do anything that results in unnecessary potential exposure. I am pushing 60, and my wife and son both have health issues that put them at heightened risk. We lost one acquaintance, a guy in his mid-50s, to Covid in the early weeks of the pandemic, and another friend with a "mild" case was in bed with a fever for more than two weeks.

We did manage to get to our camp in the Maine woods several times last summer. Normally we would have used the Downeaster and MBTA commuter rail to get back and forth, but last summer we drove the whole way. Tiresome, but it seemed safer.

My wife has now received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine (and had a strong reaction to the second dose), but I expect it will be several months at this rate before I'll be able to get vaccinated. Besides getting the vaccine, I want to see the number of new cases go way down before I start planning real travel.
 
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The second peak in new cases started in early November when the 7 day rolling average of new cases went over 100,000, it peaked on January 9th at 265,000 new cases and has now fallen back below 100,000 as of today. So we are trending in the right direction finally. Deaths are a lagging indicator and they haven't dropped nearly as much, down just 10% from a peak of 3418 per day.
8.5% of the US population has had a positive test on a Covid test so if you include the people that have not had the test but did have the disease it is probably 17% or more that have the antibodies and are highly unlikely to get it again. Add in the 10-12% of the population that has had at least one shot and gotten some slight degree of protection and we are looking at 27% to 30% of the pop that probably won't get a serious case of the bug. There is some overlap on "people that have had the disease" and "people that are getting the shots" but I tried to correct for that by ignoring the fact that probably more than 17% of the population has either tested positive for it or had it and not gotten the test done.
Unfortunately, we are only innoculating 1.6Mn people per day on average, and given the fact that less than half are people getting the second shot... That means that approximately 6.2Mn are getting their first shot per week and just 5.0Mn'ish (approximately 1.5% of the US pop) are getting their second shot per week. We really need to see the daily average of shots given to move to some where over 2Mn per day.
But we are stumbling slowly towards some form of herd immunity. The fact that the daily new case average has dropped more than 60% is a good sign. Now if the average number of deaths per day would start to drop at a faster pace...

fdaley said:
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My wife has now received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine (and had a strong reaction to the second dose), but I expect it will be several months at this rate before I'll be able to get vaccinated. Besides getting the vaccine, I want to see the number of new cases go way down before I start planning real travel.
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Ziv said:
The second peak in new cases started in early November when the 7 day rolling average of new cases went over 100,000, it peaked on January 9th at 265,000 new cases and has now fallen back below 100,000 as of today. So we are trending in the right direction finally. Deaths are a lagging indicator and they haven't dropped nearly as much, down just 10% from a peak of 3418 per day.
8.5% of the US population has had a positive test on a Covid test so if you include the people that have not had the test but did have the disease it is probably 17% or more that have the antibodies and are highly unlikely to get it again.
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Important correction: it's documented that "natural immunity" from getting infected with the original strain of Covid-19 is poor. In the most recent South African study, previous Covid-19 infection provided *no benefit* against getting infected with the South African strain. Similar results are showing up with the Brazilian strain, which is running rampant through towns where everyone had already caught the original strain. People are, in fact, getting infected twice, frequently, due to the new strains. While they haven't taken over the US yet, everyone is expecting them to do so, quickly.

The vaccines are better: they seem to help substantially with the South African strain (although they are not as effective against the South African strain as against the original strain).

Add in the 10-12% of the population that has had at least one shot and gotten some slight degree of protection and we are looking at 27% to 30% of the pop that probably won't get a serious case of the bug.
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One shot has a pretty poor protection rate. One shot of Pfizer is only about 50% effective against the original strain; one shot of Moderna is better, at 80%. Unfortunately both appear to perfom worse against the South African strain. Of those who've gotten one shot, about half are Pfizer and about half are Moderna, so this amounts to only maybe ~5% who are protected against the incoming strains.

Unfortunately, we are only innoculating 1.6Mn people per day on average, and given the fact that less than half are people getting the second shot... That means that approximately 6.2Mn are getting their first shot per week and just 5.0Mn'ish (approximately 1.5% of the US pop) are getting their second shot per week. We really need to see the daily average of shots given to move to some where over 2Mn per day.
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Once we have significantly more people with their second shot we may begin to approach herd immunity.

Right now the only places with any sort of herd immunity are hospitals and medical offices, where in many cases upwards of 80% of the workers have the second shot. That's good: preventing the virus from spreading via hospitals and medical offices is very important. (In NY, people performing the vaccinations are the one group who is *required by law* to get vaccinated -- don't want the vaccination sites to spread disease!) Of course medical offices are also being very good about masks. At this point I think medical offices are very safe.

But it'll be a while before anywhere else is as safe as the medical offices. Have to have enough people who've gotten their second shot (and high mask compliance).
 
jis said:
There is no reason to be scared to travel. However, collectively it is better not to travel unless it is essential at this time.

Here is a nice article what you should be able to do and what you should not do after getting fully vaccinated and waiting two to three weeks after your second shot so that the highest level of immunity can kick in...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/03/health/after-covid-19-vaccine-safety-wellness/index.html
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I realize CNN has its detractors, but that's a fairly balanced article that more people need to read.
 
I don’t think generally availability is several months away. I’ve been watching available appointments at vaccine sites in my area which is a good measure on when you might see an expansion to the next tier. We are currently in the 75+ folks and appointment demand has started to decrease for the eligible groups in the last week they have started taking steps to entice more to go by allowing a companion who takes a 75+ year old to an appointment to also receive the vaccine. If there’s still a lot of vaccine sitting around and they can’t fill the appointments they’ll advance to the next tier.

Not afraid to travel - I’m sitting on 98 right now in a bedroom. I don’t think I’d agree with the idea that airline first class is safer than a private room on Amtrak. Compared to Amtrak coach it may be a toss up - airlines may have an edge in air system but Amtrak has been touting that they’ve made improvements to air filtration in the cars - and it’s easier to socially distance and less crowded on the train. While aerosol transmission may be an issue it can be mitigated with filtration and outside air mixing - lots of passengers close together I feel is the biggest danger.
 
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