01 Dec TfL issues guidance for safer travel
Ahead of the lifting of national lockdown on 2 December when London will be placed in tier 2 of the Government’s COVID alert levels, Transport for London (TfL) is issuing guidance for customers who will be returning to the transport network in greater numbers.
The Government advice on travelling within tier 2 makes it clear that customers can travel to venues or amenities that are open, but they should walk or cycle where possible and avoid busy times and routes on public transport. TfL has published information about quiet stations and stops at tfl.gov.uk/quiet-times to help people travel during the quieter times and help maintain social distancing.
Extensive measures, brought in by TfL at the start of the pandemic, will continue to provide a clean, safe and reliable network for customers and staff.
Trains and stations are cleaned with hospital-grade cleaning substances that kill viruses and bacteria on contact and provide ongoing protection. Recent independent testing, carried out by Imperial College London, has found – for the third month in a row – no trace of coronavirus on the Tube and bus network.
TfL has also recently installed more than 150 ultraviolet light sanitising devices on escalators on the London Underground network, following a six-week trial earlier this year. The devices use UV light to clean the handrails on escalators and supplement TfL’s existing extensive anti-viral cleaning regime.
Earlier this year, TfL entered into an extensive partnership with Dettol to install hand sanitiser units across the network. Dettol hand sanitiser, which kills 99.9 per cent of bacteria and viruses, including the coronavirus, is currently available from dispensers at all 270 London Underground stations across London. The partnership is now being extended to cover hand sanitiser units at all London Overground and Docklands Light Railway, as well as TfL rail stations, more than 30 bus stations across London, and at selected taxi ranks outside key London Underground stations.
For more information about the measures TfL has introduced to protect its customers across its network, visit www.tfl.gov.uk/coronavirus