Transport leaders urge Government to change its messaging on avoiding trains and buses

[yorksrob]

I watched the livestream of the Rail North Committee meeting this morning. The video can still be viewed at:

TfN Rail North Committee 14-07-20 - Tuesday 14 July 2020, 11:00am - Transport for the North Webcasting

TfN Rail North Committee 14-07-20 - Tuesday 14 July 2020, 11:00am - Transport for the North Webcasting

transportforthenorth.public-i.tv

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Both local authority stakeholders and industry reps expressed considerable concern about the challenge of encouraging passengers back on to the railway, after the months of incessant messaging that public transport is unhealthy. One member expressed the view that it could take between two and ten years for patronage to recover to pre-Covid levels, with consequent dire repercussions on rail industry finances. A survey of potential passengers had reported that safety was the main issue, not cost or timetabling. Many people had said that they would not now use public transport even if it were free!

The industry reps said it would be difficult to get across the message that it is now safe to travel by train, as long as the official government guidance is still to consider all other forms of transport before using public transport.

Having listened to the meeting, I was encouraged to hear that they talked about improving Scarborough services in order to support the tourist industry.

One would have thought that such considerations should also be paramount in the consideration of the S&C and Little North Western lines, yet we seem to be left in limbo with an unusable service.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Government Covid19 travel advice is still unchanged from 4th July here but Johnson has called a presso for 5PM on Friday where the media are front running that he will be saying conditions are right for a return to work and that civil servants will be returning from August in a controlled manner so perhaps we will finally get a government endorsed change on messaging.

 

[Greybeard33]

Having listened to the meeting, I was encouraged to hear that they talked about improving Scarborough services in order to support the tourist industry.

One would have thought that such considerations should also be paramount in the consideration of the S&C and Little North Western lines, yet we seem to be left in limbo with an unusable service.

My understanding of the discussion about strengthening/enhancing services to Scarborough, and other coastal resorts, was that the main concern was the risk of virus transmission on overcrowded services. The improvements would be to accommodate demand rather than stimulate it.

Perhaps overcrowding is less of a concern on the S&C and Little North Western, if the current service is "unusable"?

 

[westv]

Government Covid19 travel advice is still unchanged from 4th July here but Johnson has called a presso for 5PM on Friday where the media are front running that he will be saying conditions are right for a return to work and that civil servants will be returning from August in a controlled manner so perhaps we will finally get a government endorsed change on messaging.

It wouldn't be a return to work, it would be a return to workplaces. This is gradually starting to happen anyway and there would still not be some mass rush back, whatever Boris says.

 

[yorksrob]

My understanding of the discussion about strengthening/enhancing services to Scarborough, and other coastal resorts, was that the main concern was the risk of virus transmission on overcrowded services. The improvements would be to accommodate demand rather than stimulate it.

Perhaps overcrowding is less of a concern on the S&C and Little North Western, if the current service is "unusable"?

I wouldn't know how overcrowded the S&C is since I've not been in a position to use those routes.

However, as well as aiming to prevent overcrowding, there is clearly also concern about business and longer term confidence in public transport being expressed, neither of which are being helped by the current situation on those routes.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

It wouldn't be a return to work, it would be a return to workplaces. This is gradually starting to happen anyway and there would still not be some mass rush back, whatever Boris says.

Appreciate it wont be a rush back and actually they need to absolutely avoid creating 'Rush Hour' loading factors as in sealed poorly ventilated trains that would present an ideal space to foster transmission even with face coverings. That said i believe businesses also realise there office spaces might not be best environment either and if they get everyone back they would risk an outbreak and having all there staff off so will be managing back to work carefully. You've also got the issue with tall buildings now having restricted lift capacity as well further scaling back how many can return. This is borne out from people ive spoken with whose companies are saying maybe in September 1 or 2 days a week to some saying see you in 2021!

So transport usage needs to spread across the day more and be adapted to maximise capacity all day long. Given, well in SE, we have a lot of rush hour capacity that lies idle during the intra peak period the TOCs should be tasked to ensure this capacity is is kept in use. That may need a fundamental shift in the way they operate but so be it as in the cities public transport is an essential enabler of economic activity. The government can impose its will through the Emergency Measures Agreements but it does need a good railway operations manager to take overall control to provide direction and not leave it to DofT mandarins.