By Rosalind Clay Carter, MNRCC Member
July 25, 2022
Good morning, my name is Rosalind Clay Carter. I am a Retired Human Resources Executive and although I continue to mentor young professionals, and volunteer – my focus is on political and policy advocacy. Among my many volunteer activities are the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, and the Metro North Railroad Commuter Council.
This morning I would like to take a few seconds to express a big thank you to everyone at Metro-North (and the MTA) for being my transportation lifeline. Although there were occasional hiccups, I could not have survived as a working Mom commuting for 23 years to NYC without the reasonably reliable, fairly clean, and frequent train service from New Rochelle to Grand Central and Riverdale where my daughter attended school.
Today I am here to request that Metro North reinstate quiet cars and enforce the masking requirement in these cars. Yes, conductors would need to enforce masking. They should carry a supply of mask to distribute if needed in the quiet car. I frankly think people who sit in quiet cars may be willing to grudgingly wear a mask to have the quiet space. There would be a sign on the doors stating “quiet car” – Should there be high demand for the “masked quiet car, the number of quiet cars can be increased. There should also be a video made and distributed to conductors to train conductors on how to best approach passengers about masking. I’m only asking for mask enforcement to be in the reinstated quiet car – even though ideally it should be enforced throughout the trains since it’s still a New York State requirement.
COVID is still with us, and we want to increase ridership. Let’s do our part to keep COVID numbers down.
Thank you.