A mask mandate for rail passengers is back by popular demand in the San Francisco Bay Area, the region that two years ago imposed the nation’s first coronavirus stay-at-home order and now is bucking the national trend away from required face coverings.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system, known as BART, had decided to drop its rule in line with a federal court ruling but that decision prompted an outcry. “We started to immediately hear from riders in phone calls, emails, tweets, that they felt unsafe on the train if there was not a mask mandate,” said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost.

BART’s board of directors decided in a meeting Thursday to temporarily restore the mask rule until at least July 18. Children ages two and under as well as people with medical conditions that prevent them from wearing masks are exempt from the mandate.

The decision makes the Bay Area’s largest transit system the latest in California to bring back a mandate for face coverings after Los Angeles County restored its masking rule a week ago for all public transportation including buses, trains, subways, taxis, and airports.

The reinstatement came 10 days after a federal judge in Florida ended the nation’s federal mask mandate on public transportation, freeing airlines, airports, and mass transit systems to make their own decisions about mask requirements.

A mix of responses has taken shape across the country that reflects the nation’s ongoing divisions over how to battle the virus: Major airlines immediately dropped mask requirements after the decision, as did many local transit agencies around the country; however, New York City, Chicago and Connecticut, however, continued to require masks for travellers. San Francisco and Los Angeles public transit agencies initially dropped their mask requirements, but many have since flip-flopped.

The BART board meeting was flooded by callers who voiced support for reinstating the policy in particular to protect vulnerable riders, Trost said.

BART, which connects San Francisco to its eastern and southern suburbs, is struggling to restore ridership that plummeted from pre-pandemic highs of over 400,000 weekday riders to about 130,000, according to recent data. It quickly became clear that banishing mask mandates would not help.

“We are still really trying to win back riders, and I think masks can play an important role in doing that,” Trost said.

San Francisco and the wider Bay Area have had some of the strictest pandemic regulations and compliance with the rules in the US, starting in March 2020 when the Bay Area became the first to declare a state of emergency. Many residents have continued to wear masks in supermarkets and other indoor venues even though indoor mask mandates were largely lifted in February. Similarly, most BART riders have continued to wear masks in the past week, despite the temporary lifting of the mask rule.

BART said its police force will emphasize education-based enforcement by offering masks to riders before issuing citations up to $75 or ejecting anyone.