Popped into Ely station this evening as I was passing after a walk in the country, first time I've been on the station since late evening March 23rd... Observations:
- They've put a one-way system in - in via the ticket office, out via by the bike racks. To be fair, that's not a major inconvenience.
- The ticket office had markings on the floor for 2m distancing. It made it very obvious - if it wasn't already - that 2m is never going to be practical once travel picks up again. With 2m distancing, the capacity of the ticket office is well below the number of people often seen in there, especially on times like late morning on a weekend.
- A KGX -> KLN pulled in during the brief period I was there. I didn't see the loading of the train, but two people got on and one got off. (None of them were wearing masks). Not sure how many I would expect to be getting off on a 'normal' day at that time, but I'd guess 30-40. The one person who did get off then completely ignored the arrows all over the platform and left the station by the ticket office
- There didn't seem to be any staff obviously present (though I expect there were some in the office on platform 1). No-one was on the platform to see the KLN train off, which I don't think I've ever seen happen at Ely before.
The main conclusion, as if I didn't know it already, is that 2m distancing just isn't going to work for much longer, even if were desirable for it to be so.
(On a related note, people on the street are seeming far less bothered, on average, about keeping a huge distance away when passing, than even a week ago. One (young-ish) man walked by me so near that they almost brushed my shoulder when they passed! Normally that would have annoyed me (I do like my personal space) but in this case it cheered me up immensely