Coronavirus Implications For London's Transport

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High Street Kensington, Earl’s Court, Barons Court, Turnham Green

Some train operators and bus drivers having been doing this for a while now.
I suppose it helps to give the impression that these guys are putting themselves at risk to keep the services running.

I just found out that as from Mon 20th all buses will be entry/exit via middle doors only.

Single-door buses are now only used where longer ones can't negotiate tight corners. The buses on the K5 have the seats nearest the driver taped off to minimise the time spent near the driver.

They will be installing card readers by the middle doors. Until then, bus travel will be free.

Yes, completely forgetting there is also a shortage nationally. 

Can't help but form the impression this is a rather cynical attempt to be seen to be doing *something*. I suspect history may well take the view Khan has been rather ineffective through this. The situation with bus drivers shouldn't have required too much of a vivid imagination.

It's also rather daft to call for something but not actually provide it. If masks are suddenly such a good thing, where are they for those staff who are at work *now*?

Precisely. It would have been better for Khan to keep his mouth firmly closed, and give focus to ensuring social distancing in London doesn't fade away. He has been rather conspicuous by his silence through all this.

Absolutely spot on NF, and whilst I'm here typing, can all of us avoid straying into critiques of politicians please? It's happened twice so far on this thread and we've let it go, but the next time, it'll end up in the bin. 

The Greater London Authority Act 1999 gives the Mayor limited powers which is why Sadiq Khan has to ask the government to make wearing masks compulsory on public transport rather than imposing it himself. The government are still following the WHO recommendations that masks are not essential but are constantly "reviewing the evidence".

If they do make wearing masks compulsory then they're going to have to make supplies available to all operational transport staff (not just TfL) otherwise we could end up with the ridiculous situation where staff can't get to work. As others have pointed out the NHS are struggling to get supplies so where TfL, etc. are supposed to get them is anybody's guess.

For those who aren't aware I'm a community pharmacist and am thus very much on the frontline of this pandemic.

Some PPE is perishable.

About ten years ago there was concern that there might be an influenza pandemic and as a result the government stockpiled a variety of PPE, including FFP2 surgical masks. These masks are fluid resistant and thus have been demonstrated to reduce influenza transmission by about a factor of six; coronaviruses are transmitted in a similar manner to influenzas within exhaled droplets. However, over time the filter material can degrade and when it does it will not provide protection.

Masks from this stockpile are currently being issued to NHS staff, however as they were purchased ten years ago they have now expired. Apparently there has been some testing to demonstrate that they are still effective and they have had the expiry dates over-labelled. However staff are naturally cautious about this. I'm lucky in that my employer was able to obtain some in-date masks for us; whilst I have a box of life-extended ones from the NHS, we are not using these until we absolutely have to - preferring to use those obtained by our company.

Edit to add: here is a BBC News article about the issue: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-52230253

Social media has made everybody far more knowledgeable than the experts who've spent many years building their knowledge at educational estalishments, in laboratries, workplaces, studies of real life scenario's, etc, etc.

Anyway, back to the railway...

Apparently LU plans to bring in its temporary timetables created by sheduling services on 26th April (currently all lines are running a less formal made up emergency timetable). The official email I've seen setting this out states that all duties will be 7 hours 12 minutes in length. Not sure how this will actually work in practice as no two lines are the same - guess we'll find out when we see the actual duties.

In the mean time, I was talking to a union rep at Upminster yesterday and they've already raised a number of issues such as the number of meal breaks scheduled at particular times & locations as well as live changeover's of driver's - both are highly likely to contravene social distancing guidelines.

Glad I'm on annual leave whilst this rumbles on.....

I was passing Gants Hill station today (driving - on my way home from shopping) and noted new large signs above all entrances reminding people that they are not supposed to be travelling.

As I was driving I could not get a photo but I will try when next out, mostly likely this will be within a few days as part of what is supposed to be 'daily' exercise (going for a walk), although I'm often too busy to do this every day.

As an aside, for those who do not know this station, it is located in the middle circle of a busy traffic roundabout and therefore does not have a street entrance - instead the ticket hall is off the subterranean passages used by pedestrians who wish to cross the roads and avoid the traffic.

From what I gather (this all kicked off just before I left this evening), it’s the same on the Northern - both the unions and those who would be running the service, ie the depots, still see issues.

Having said that, is it definitely the case that they’re still trying to run the 4-minute service? At the point when I left I don’t think anyone knew for sure one way or other. One might have presumed the last couple of weeks had been used as an opportunity to thin out the planned timetables to something more realistic, but seemingly not?

I really sense someone is trying to pull off a “look at me we’re running an intensive service” stunt, rather than trying to deliver something which responds to what London actually *needs* at this time. We could have had the timetables in already had something more realistic been devised. It would have made life easier for everyone as the special service is quite draining for everyone involved in running it - drivers, train managers and signallers.

(It would be easy for the signallers if the constant headway function of a certain signalling system actually worked!).