Coronavirus Implications For London's Transport

Petrol cheap, good; Nowhere to go Bad.

I can’t speak for train side, but that is definitely how much is working at the moment. There is lots of willingness and flexibility in the actual product offered. The main concerns of the Unions right now is the health and safety of staff.

I've heard of some of this from friends on train side, but obviously I can't comment with any certainty. Service control isn't the same in that respect, at least not in my part of the world. Indeed, I've just been asked if I'd consider moving from late spare tomorrow to cover an early turn. Technically outside of our parameters, but obviously the right thing to do in the current circumstances. (Even though I hate early turns with a passion...!)

I’d say there’s a fair chance LU could be closed down within a week, if things carry on as they are. Staff are dropping like flies, and as I posted elsewhere this is starting to seriously irritate those who are in - potentially placing themselves at some (undefined and unknown) level of risk whilst others are paid to have three months off plus annual leave right through the early summer.

It won’t take driver availability to drop much more before some lines won’t be able to run an end-to-end service, certainly not at anything near the frequency we’re used to. And as I’ve posted elsewhere if some other functions start getting badly affected then it won’t be viable to run in any case. Unfortunately staff are already worn down by things which have happened over the years, Fit for the Future Stations being a good example, so goodwill isn’t in massive supply at the best of times.

LU could get round some of this by showing a bit of love towards those who are at work, however that relies on the powers that be actually noticing they have an issue brewing up...

Im quite close to the situation in regards to the shuttle two things im quite certain on,one being the four car shuttle cant work at the moment as it will get gapped and secondly due to the virus outbreak or maybe since the outbreak platform one at hainault has been used for more westbound services i assume this is because the shuttle service isnt going to be as frequent to what it was due to the reduction in trains whilst the virus continues and i imagine the shortage of staff due to illness and annual leaves etc,i was told that West ruislip depot has around 80 drivers and roughly 25 of these are off (although this wouldnt affect the shuttle directly) but i imagine the other depots on the line are suffering the same.

Looks like this morning is the cliff edge we’ve all been expecting. Significantly late start ups through zone 1 (some first trains are still yet to reach) and a greatly increased number of stations closed (beyond the forty), some of which are Night Tube and would in theory have staff available to a point. It was very disconcerting running through Manor House, Finsbury Park and Arsenal non-stop - I cant even think of times on strike days when Finsbury would be non-stopped. A useful fact to show why station closures were planned as they were, and something that might silence the Blackhorse Road brigade (probably not).

Jubilee, District and H&C definitely on an emergency timetable, believe the Vic is too. We have contributors who can give more detail about other lines. Met is running a reduced service anyway due to engineering works, but I’m told even that has been severely hit (I’ll find out shortly!). No Circle services at all for the whole day.

Is work on the Liz Line going on as usual, or have operations been suspended? The the nearest comparator might be; when did work cease on the Alexandra Palace/Leytonstone-Ongar, Aldenham extensions etc after Sept 1939? I've always been surprised that work on the new Loughton station continued to completion in spring 1940, for instance. In other words, when did the essential national situation cut into the "business as usual" mantra?

I suspect it cut in when large numbers of people became unavailble for work, not so much the case in 1940 when self-isolation was not required.

An extended shutdown will also run into route knowledge retention issues for even experienced staff.

Today seems to be fairly variable. Most lines are running a special service with reasonable intervals, worst line seems to be the Central where the number of branches is clearly making the service very difficult to manage - some 30+ minute intervals to West Ruislip and Epping at some times today. Going forward I suspect the Central is going to have to consider shuttle services on the branches.

I'd imagine the weekdays should provide something slightly better simply as more drivers are scheduled to be on duty, although the flip side of this coin is more and more people are becoming unavailable.

Most services are running end-to-end; apart from the Northern's reversing at Moorgate which is due to planned engineering work, the only thing of interest is the Bakerloo is reversing off both platforms at Queen's Park which isn't normally done.

Availability of other operating staff also continues to be a problem, although the reduced and simple service operating means this is less of an issue than it might otherwise be - for example in control rooms it's practicable for signallers to man more than one desk at a time).

As alluded to elsewhere things like training and licensing will be problematic in time.

How would "heavier enforcement" be possible?

For starters Oyster cards, etc. do not identify if the bearer is a "key worker" or whether their journey is essential.

Secondly we don't have enough staff to check everyone coming onto the Tube but even if we did they're not bouncers.  Police are also short of numbers and can't be at every station.

Third there are plenty of interchanges where passengers coming from other lines with non-gated/staffed stations can walk straight onto the Tube

We can't make the system "watertight".

One of the side benefits (sic) is that local authorities in England are allowing pensioners on buses free before 9.30, a luxury London pensioners have had for years. Was it a political or medical decision? as medics where I live are set against supermarkets setting aside set hours for pensioners as guaranteed way of spreading the virus.

Seems like a sparse service is operating on many lines this morning. Even though there are less people using the services, this is causing them to be more packed.

One wonders how long a service can be sustained for, given that the levels are decreasing on a daily basis.

In Paris the Metro is running a 30% service except on the driverless Line 14 (40%) and Line 1 (60%). RER A 30%, RER B 60% and buses 40%. Six stations are closed.

In Berlin all services on buses, U-Bahn and S-bahn are running 50%. Passengers can no longer board buses by the front door to keep them away from the driver.