Gov. Kathy Hochul lifts MTA, commuter rail mask requirement

New York commuters are no longer required to wear masks on public transportation, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.

“Starting today, masks will be optional,” Hochul said before getting her Omicron variant booster shot in Manhattan.

The Biden administration lifted the federal public transportation mask requirement in April after a judge overruled it, but New York state had maintained its local rule up until Wednesday.

Hochul said relatively steady COVID-19 rates since the Omicron surge last winter and the availability of the new booster vaccine influenced her decision to end the requirement, which has been in place on commuter rails like the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North, as well as New York City subways and buses for over two years.

“It’s always been a visible reminder that something is not normal here and it was there for the right reason. It protected health,” she said. “We’re in a far different place than we had been.”

Hochul will keep the mask requirement for health facilities regulated by the state including hospitals and nursing homes, she said. Requirements in correctional facilities and domestic violence shelters will be lifted.

Officials have posted signs in public transit facilities that they say encourage mask use.

“Masks are encouraged, but optional. Let’s respect each other’s choices,” the signs say, along with images of masks and unmasked faces all marked “yes.”

“What that means is if you choose not to have a mask, that is your personal decision. You’ll do your own personal risk assessment of who you’re exposed to, your own vulnerabilities, where you work,” the governor said.

“You make your own determination, but do not judge your fellow passengers what their choices are. Let’s be respectful.”

Far-left Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattan) took issue with the messaging, calling the signage “not funny… to folks with chronic illness.”

“People’s health and safety is not funny. Is this an episode of Black Mirror?” Niou tweeted. “@MTA should be ashamed. Why would you promote this?”

State health officials will “continue watching the numbers” as the virus continues to spread widely, the governor said.

“We are watching global trends. We are watching for variants,” she said. “We are watching for any updates and vaccines but we do believe that we’re in a good place right now, especially if New Yorkers take advantage of this booster.”

Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted the mask mandate in the depths of the COVID-19 crisis in April 2020. MTA officials stopped tracking compliance in April, but mask-wearing rates had dropped significantly until that point.

MTA officials stopped tracking compliance in April, but mask wearing rates had dropped significantly up until that point — down to 64% from 90% a year earlier.

One advocate for the disabled blasted the decision to nix the mask rule as “flying in the face of science and plain common sense.”

“Masks work, and they are hardly an imposition on riders,” said Joe Rappaport of the Brooklyn Center for the Independence of the Disabled. “The governor’s decision is particularly disturbing in the wake of the predominant BA.5 variant, which spreads rapidly and easily.”

Speaking to NY1, former Interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg said officials may have “policy whiplash” as COVID continues to spread and trains get more crowded, but that Hochul’s decision was a “reflection of reality.”

“We’re not seeing nearly the masks that we used to see – maybe 30%, 40%. Maybe on a good day, 50% are wearing masks,” Feinberg said.

“I think it’ll probably feel like a bit of policy whiplash. The trains are very crowded right now. I had to wait for a second train this morning during rush hour. So you’ve got all these folks piling back in and at that moment we’re saying, ‘No need for masks.’ I think it’s reflective of reality, but a little confusing perhaps.”

The MTA’s current leadership is divided on whether they’ll keep masking up — CEO Janno Lieber said he will continue to do so in train cars and indoor stations, but NYCT President Richard Davey said he finds masks “a bit uncomfortable.”

“I’ll probably carry a mask throughout,” Davey told reporters at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “But I think my personal choice will probably be not to wear a mask.”