(11 Sep 2020, 3:12 pm)Drifter60 wrote There seems to be a few of these popping up and it’s not easy to manage for Go North East, but I think the rules maybe are being relaxed a little too soon and now we’re seeing the the rest of Tyne & Wear (apart from North Tyneside) joining South Tyneside and Middlesbrough on the Government Covid Watch List, I think GNE need to get on top on this soon - otherwise passengers aren’t going to feel confident or safe using buses.
The numbers being reported though (even accounting for the fact that people are going to be more likely to moan than praise) suggests this is more than the odd rare occurrence. While I totally understand they cannot guess the correct capacity needed for every single journey every time, there seems to be an alarmingly laissez faire attitude from the company (based on posts and replies on their own social media) which shows a worrying lack of insight into the risk they are perpetuating.
As I said elsewhere, by allowing passengers to board to the levels reported in a number of posts (strangers having to sit next to each other, standing passengers etc) the company may think they are helping by not leaving people stranded, but actually are simply making it easier for the virus to spread, doing precisely noone any favours in the long run. The company responses on social media about moniroting in case it becomes a regular problem completely and absolutely misses the point of social distancing. Even Boris hasn't yet stooped to saying it's ok to only socially distance most of the time. There is no reasonable excuse for allowing more passengers to board once e.g. each row is occupied (arguably that isnt spaced out enough - but letting that slide even) but that appears to be exactly what has happened to result in standing passengers.
There should be a much stronger statements from the company that this is unacceptable and assurance that it will be investigated to prevent it from happening again. Of course there is always the perverse incentive to maximise reveneue to recoup losses incurred this year...which is most easily done by maximising passenger numbers per vehicle of course...
(11 Sep 2020, 4:54 pm)Adrian wrote Arriva North East put something out earlier, which isn't exactly confidence boosting:
"We’ve had several queries regarding our dedicated school bus services, so we wanted to reassure you that we are working in line with government guidelines, students should socially distance on the bus, if there is space to do so, if not, students can use all the available capacity on the bus, as they would pre-covid. Social distancing still applies when boarding and alighting, with non-exempt students over 11 required to wear a face-covering. We thank you for your cooperation."
https://www.facebook.com/arrivanortheast...2494006173
It's no wonder people are confused! If I had kids, they would not be using a scholars bus 'as they would pre-covid', knowing how packed some of them become. It's as if social distancing has now become an aspiration, rather than a requirement.
n.b. before someone points it out, I know it's in line with the DfE guidance - but that doesn't make it the right thing to do.
That arriva quote sounds eerily like it was written by the same kind of mind as the "go to work dont go to work unless you can work from home then you should go to work" nonsense we all had to try to make sense of a few months ago.
On the bit in bold - couldn't agree more, and the impact is already being seen in the rates shooting up, and the fatalistic "inevitable we will have lots of sad deaths from covid this winter" messaging starting from the government propaganda machine.