Passenger Trains > Amtrak travel and airborne disease safety

We'd like to take an Amtrak trip, but my spouse has a compromised immune system, and getting any sort of virus or bacterial infection could become serious.  There are other health issues too.    We mask up every we go out, and try not to stay too long in enclosed areas.
So far so good. No illnesses in the last 10 months. 

So how good is the ventillation and changing of air on a LD train?   I dont think we'd have any problem staying away from contact with others, but an enclosed area can build up a lot of airborne stuff.    I would never spend days on a ship.  Even tho things today are a whole lot better than during the covid days,  ppl still contract stuff and can get very ill.  

On airplanes, the entire cabin air changes out every 3 minutes.

 

First of all, sit in the front of the cabin on an airplane.  The outflow valves that control pressurization are in the rear of the fuselage, so air moves generally aft.  Sitting in the rear may...MAY...expose you to all he other passengers exhales.  On the train, in a roomette or bedroom, you are pretty well isolated from the rest of the interior of the car as long as you keep the door closed.  Good luck and have a nice trip.

The air circulation in sleepers is very good - all air comes from outside, passes through HEPA filters, then enters the rooms, as clean as one can get in a public environment. Full replacement about every 3-4 minutes. It then exits out/under the door into the corridor. So, with the room door closed (for the most part) you  are in a clean air chamber.  Since meals can be delivered to your room, there would be no need to interact with people for a sustained period. 

Five years ago, with the onset of the pandemic, I had the occasion to ride 97 after my hospitalization and quarantine from COVID. Masked up whenever the door was opened and  removed it about 2 minutes after the door was closed. No problem. 

Ironically, I contracted COVID from exposure in a hotel room (a hotel with no-contact entry, etc) that had its own AC system for my room - so, with the AC on it was positive air-flow situataion ... but all the bathrooms were connected by a single venting system:  good old warm, moist air that circulated between all the rooms.  When I closed the bathroom door the positive pressure from other rooms with open bathroom doors meant I was exposed to a flow of  that common air. 

And since COVID, I can attest that they change the HEPA filters at every turnaround point. Much better than before COVID!