"How Covid safe are Amtrak sleepers?" As Hamlet once said, "That is the question." But what is the answer?
I see a lot of discussion of surface cleaning, from Amtrak and others, and it's all well and good for hygiene and cosmetic reasons. For Covid, not so much.
Transmission via surfaces was always a theoretical means of transmission, because the virus could live on surfaces and be transported to the face by touch. But in sufficient amounts and in a viable state to cause disease? Unknown. Still, best to be careful.
Then came droplets (particles 5 microns or greater). For sure droplets expelled in the air carry the virus. So wear a mask, social distance and keep 6 feet apart. Why? Because droplets are relatively large and heavy, gravity pulls them to the ground and generally they don't travel through the air for distances greater than 6 feet. So far so good.
Except that leaves aerosols (particles less than 5 microns). Big debate among scientists, WHO and CDC whether the virus is transmitted via aerosols. At first no, then maybe, now the emerging scientific consensus is yes.
How far do aerosols travel? Very far. And they linger in the air and they waft around. Think cigarette smoke. If someone is smoking at one end of the Viewliner sleeper car (Heaven forbid!) and you were seated at the other, you could probably smell the smoke. These are aerosols. Aerosols can linger in the air (e.g. in the corridor), infiltrate into rooms even when the door is closed through openings and cracks (unless the room is hermetically sealed, which it is not), pass through most non-surgical masks, and I doubt anyone (including Amtrak) can say whether Amtrak's air filtration systems are adequate to filter them out. entirely.
Bottom line, I wouldn't be prepared to say that Amtrak sleepers are "safe" until I was sure aerosols were not a problem on board. I'm not there yet. To quote Hamlet again, "there's the rub."