Is This Trip Really Necessary?

Not sure they will go that far, there likely will be social distancing/limits on people on trains, but the WWII situation was a bit different, the rails were shipping all kinds of war material, plus moving troops between bases, so the problem was crowding. Under current restrictions they ask you not to go out unless it is necessary. In the future I think that they will be encouraging people to travel and to get them to feel safe they will be promoting social distancing, disinfecting trains/planes/buses, wearing masks, etc, to make people feel comfortable enough to travel. For all the talk about opening it up, people wanting to go back to normal, places that have reopened malls and stores and restaurants are mostly not seeing crowds of people, they are pretty empty, because a lot of people still don't feel safe (and please, I don't want to debate here whether they are or not safe, whether they are wise or foolish, that is outside the scope of this board). There is a big difference between supply and demand here, there is plenty of supply/bandwidth that can be used, but demand is suppressed due to fears. In WWII, they were suppressing demand because of a limit of supply. 

Mitch, 

If riders don't return soon either the fares or taxpayer subsidies (Or both?) will go beyond acceptable.

In a WB cartoon short, Bugs Bunny kicked himself off a train as an unneed trip!

Did 18 years on the LIRR, the loss of income from the loss of riders is suitable payback for the horrible service I endured all those years. You have no idea of the waste which LIRR was engaged with East side access project which I worked on.  Union featherbedding is a  item which has to be addressed  and well as illegal overtime.  

IMO, BigKid got it exactly right. This is an older group, which likely isn't feeling the financial pain of the unemployed. Unless its a child. But I look at a trip as a risk, and the more people who are not being careful, the less likely I am to go somewhere.

Gerry

thanks Mitch for posting....