(30 Aug 2021, 11:24 pm)Wybus wrote I’d love to know what Nexus’s stand point is on that, there is literally no reason why the racks can’t be reintroduced now Covid restrictions have been removed.
They could open the Gateshead travel centre unmanned and use the ones in there as well. I imagine it is pretty doubtful that that unit will ever get a commercial tenant considering the number of shops already present around the Interchange, so it’s just sitting there empty
They seem to jump straight to eliminating the activity, rather than controlling the risk. There are several examples of this:
- Timetable racks (as you mention) have been removed since the uncertainty around the start of COVID-19. This is excessive, as I imagine very few people pick up and put back timetables. An even smaller percentage of those people are likely to have COVID.
- Toilets have been removed from use at Nexus managed bus stations; Gateshead and South Shields spring to mind, but I believe it is also the case at Park Lane. My understanding is that at South Shields, they're not even available for bus driver use, given that there's a portable welfare room in place at Shields Bus Station. This out of the four makes the least sense, because at a time we were all told to wash our hands more frequently, Nexus decide to close off access to do that...
- Seating has been removed en-mass at some locations. Gateshead springs to mind. Again, this is excessive and far beyond reasonable controlling of risk. The seating is yet to be replaced.
- Travel Shops may have been in decline over the past couple of years, but Nexus made the decision during a pandemic to close the remaining ones, including the South Shields bus station that opened just a year previous. Again excessive, and at a point that they're probably needed more than ever, to get people back out and using public transport.
I really worry about the future under an enhanced partnership and a world of bus service improvement plans, when we have a PTE that is so backward thinking.