{"id":122,"date":"2020-05-06T01:47:52","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T00:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/?p=122"},"modified":"2023-10-10T00:22:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T23:22:51","slug":"london-buses-step-up-virus-measures-after-20-drivers-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/london-buses-step-up-virus-measures-after-20-drivers-die","title":{"rendered":"London Buses Step Up Virus Measures After 20 Drivers Die"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

London’s transport authorities on Friday announced new measures to protect bus drivers from coronavirus, as colleagues held a minute’s silence for 20 who have already died.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Mayor Sadiq Khan, whose father was a bus driver, led tributes to the victims as authorities said passengers would no longer be able to use the front door near the driver.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“It breaks my heart that 20 London<\/a> bus workers have lost their lives to #COVID19. It could easily have been my dad and his friends<\/em>,” Khan wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Our transport workers are heroes and we must do everything we can to protect them<\/em>.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

He joined a minute’s silence called by the trade union Unite, which has been pressing for better protection for London’s 20,000 bus drivers and other transport staff.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

London is on the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain, where more than 14,500 people have died, making it one of the worst-hit countries in the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Since a nationwide lockdown was introduced last month, bus passengers numbers in London have fallen by about 85 percent.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But a reduced service is still running on the buses and trains for key workers. Four Underground and train staff have also died.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Transport for London (TfL), the city’s travel authority, has already introduced a new cleaning regime for buses, stations and depots.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The seats at the front of buses closest to the driver have been roped off and drivers sit behind a clear protective screen.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

London bus drivers have paid a heavy toll from the coronavirus, with 20 already dead, prompting new security measures to be introduced Photo: AFP \/ Tolga Akmen<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In the new measure to be introduced from Monday, the front doors will now be kept shut with passengers asked to get on and off using the middle doors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

London bus driver Joanna Harris hailed the change “a victory<\/em>“.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Unless somebody can come up with some miraculous cure for this, we’ve got to do what we can to make this safer for our drivers<\/em>,” she told AFP.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Bus drivers are scared. They really are scared. Not so much for themselves I think but for their families<\/em>.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Pete Kavanagh, Unite’s London representative, said it was a “very welcome move<\/em>“.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“We have lost members of our bus family in recent days and we refuse to lose any more<\/em>,” he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Not all protective measures have been so well-received by workers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The RMT union reported that one bus operator in south-west England responded to its demands for more protection by fitting “what can best<\/a> be described as a shower curtain” to the driver’s cab.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Drivers complained that “the curtain is so flimsy members of the public have been pulling it to one side in order to speak to the driver” — which risks greater contact with passengers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Khan is also lobbying the British government to advise people to wear face masks on public transport, to try to stem the spread of coronavirus.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Ministers have expressed scepticism about the idea in the past, but say the issue is under review.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London’s transport authorities on Friday announced new measures to protect bus drivers from coronavirus, as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1390,"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/1390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamletlaundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}