(07 Sep 2020, 3:49 pm)Storx wrote Ones an intercity operator (LNER), the rest are commuter services. It's very hard to limit tickets and force reservations on routes which have serious capacity problems at the peaks as it is. You might aswell get people moving even without proper social distancing for 10 minutes rather than having platforms overcrowded, no-one moving anywhere and Leeds concourse just jammed with people trying to get on trains for hours on end. It's wrong but there's no way around it - if someone lives at Huddersfield and needs to be at work at Leeds or Manchester there's very little alternatives if they don't/wont drive. It's the same with the Metro really.

Also the Metro isn't cleaned at all from personal experience, if you open a window you get a handful of black dust which has been there for months. The same as above the handrails which go horizontal. Both of which are touch points imo. They're never cleaned though in usual times and hasn't changed now.

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Instead of putting an opinion I'm going to put a question instead to get a point of why nothing is enforced for those who want the enforcement. How do you expect a bus driver to enforce someone to wear a mask if the customer says no and goes upstairs with a day ticket or return?

It's easy to say stuff behind a computer screen but in reality it's not as easy as said. It's same on a train - how do you expect the train guard to remove a customer for not wearing a mask with a valid ticket?

Sorry, I might be missing something, but I don't understand the relevance of one being an 'Intercity operator' and the other not. Regardless of definition, the passenger numbers simply aren't there at the moment, with so many still working from home. From reports I've read though, people seem to be refusing to change travel patterns still and rushing for peak trains. There's absolutely no reason why a reservation system could not be enforced, other than down to the willingness to do so. 

This has been a relatively constructive debate thus far, so I don't think we need to go down the route of suggesting people are hiding behind a computer screen. In answer to your question though, I actually think that most 'offenders', at least to face coverings, would comply out of sheer shock of being challenged. Nobody likes to be challenged on something they're doing wrong and I'm confident this would the vast majority of instances.

I've barely used buses and yet the ones I've been on, I've seen face coverings: hung off one ear, warming the wearer's chin, worn as a bandanna, worn under the nose, and so on. It would not take much to point out to passengers that they need to wear their face coverings correctly, but the operators need to empower their staff to do that. Whilst they're making the choice to not enforce, I don't blame staff for not doing it either. It needs to be an instruction from top down. 

Even in the cases of someone refusing to comply, there are options available. I've seen both buses and trains significantly held back at stations to wait for the police because someone has refused to pay their fare. I've even seen a bus held at a bus station for 20+ minutes because a couple of Sunderland's finest decided to crack open a couple bottles of White Lightning or whatever the tipple of choice is these days. I don't think you'd ever go that far down the line over a face covering, and I wouldn't want to see it personally, but I think this highlights that it comes down to a willingness to enforce as operators.