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Trains and buses packed as people return to work but ignore social distancing
There has been a lot of confusion.
Last night the Prime Minister addressed the nation, giving an update on England’s path out of lockdown, with some measures set to begin this week.
While it was meant to clear things up, it has caused a great deal of confusion, with Mr Johnson telling certain workers they needed to go back to work if they can, but without using public transport, if possible.
As a result, trains and buses have been ‘packed’ this morning, with people seen ignoring social distancing guidelines and not wearing face masks.
The Prime Minister stated that anyone in England who cannot work from home – like those in construction and manufacturing – should now be ‘actively encouraged’ to return to work. However, they must avoid public transport if possible.
After facing a backlash over the confusion, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has now said that the government’s advice was actually meant to come into effect from Wednesday, not today.
He told LBC: “The advice is that those people who can work from home should continue to work from home.
“Where you can’t work from home, construction, manufacturing, those big economically valuable sectors, from Wednesday people should go back.
“And we’ve done a lot of work, employers have done a lot of work to make sure they can do so in what we’re calling Covid-secure settings. So the distancing, the hygiene, the other precaution measures are in place.”
People took to social media to highlight how ‘packed’ and unsafe they feel on public transport today, with one tweeting TFL to say: “Train is packed with construction workers and NOBODY is wearing a mask and NO social distancing as if there’s no danger.”
Another added: “The platform is packed, train every 20mins. I feel extremely uncomfortable on a packed train heading to work at a hospital with vulnerability patients”.
Up here in Manchester there were reports of buses being busy and people ignoring social distancing, while the number of passengers at Piccadilly Station has ‘noticeably risen’ this morning.
Sky News North of England correspondent Tom Parmenter tweeted: “One of the station managers for one of the train operators at Manchester Piccadilly tells me passenger numbers have noticeably risen this morning and there’s more people travelling with big suitcases compared to recent weeks (not key workers)”.