The Tube fights in London are on track

LONDON (AP) – When London stopped since a nationwide coronavirus blockade was imposed a year ago, the subway functioned as an essential service. But it was a strange and disturbing experience for his workers.

Joseph Cocks, a driver on the Circle line of the subway that runs through the city center, said he could “count the number of people who got on the train on one side.”

“To be seen at a peak on Monday morning, to see almost no one, was shocking and surprising,” he said of the system, which opened in 1863 and is colloquially known as the Tube.

His continued operation was a sign that, even in a pandemic, the heart of London was still beating.

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Plagues, fires, war – London survived everyone. But he never had a year like this. The coronavirus killed more than 15,000 Londoners and shook the foundations of one of the world’s major cities. As a swift mass vaccination campaign promises to reopen, the Associated Press looks at the impact of the pandemic on London’s people and institutions and asks what the future holds.

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In a city where almost half of households do not own a car, public transport keeps economic and social life moving. Prior to the national blockade on March 23, 2020, approximately 5 million journeys per day were made by subway. Its iconic map, reminiscent of a multicolored circuit board, is both an emblem of the city and an essential tool for both residents and visitors.

In the early weeks, when most Britons were told to stay home and fear that they had overcome the facts about the virus, Underground employees continued to go to work, but worried they would get sick.

“I didn’t know exactly how bad it was,” Cocks said. “They were worried about how dangerous this job was and you will hear stories about people in the Underground catching coronavirus. So I didn’t know how fast it spread and how confident I was. “

COVID-19 has suffered a heavy toll on transport to London, which manages the city’s tube, rail and bus network. At least 89 TFL employees died of coronavirus, most of them bus drivers, whose mortality rate was three times higher than the national average, according to a study by University College London.

The virus has hit people in public jobs hardest, and the death toll has been higher among ethnic minorities than their white compatriots. The reasons are considered to include jobs, the underlying health conditions and economic inequality.

About a third of TFL’s workforce belongs to an ethnic minority, in part a legacy of thousands of people in the former British colonies who came to Britain after World War II to consolidate a depleted workforce.

Brian Woodhead, director of Underground customer service, says the network has acted quickly to protect staff and passengers. Masks are mandatory, hand sanitizer is plentiful, escalator railings are burned with ultraviolet light that kills viruses, and one-way systems reduce blockages in the station corridors. In buses, drivers stay in closed cabins.

“As much as anyone can in the circumstances we are in now, I think the Tube is a safe environment,” Woodhead said.

He cites a recent study by Imperial College London, which tested the virus on surfaces and in the air underground and found none. This is due, in part, to people like Ivelina Dimitrova, who oversees 20 cleaning agents in the stations, including the busy King’s Cross. She and her crew – mostly immigrants from Eastern Europe, Africa and South Asia – regularly spray the surfaces with hospital disinfectant.

“We had to change our work routine and everything and (we had to) do it quickly” when the virus arrived, she said, adding that they felt constant stress about the infection.

Now, she said, “we have a strong morale, because we feel we have to do what we can do just to keep ourselves safe, our families safe, other people around us safe.”

Passengers who previously did not notice much cleaning staff sometimes stop to thank them, she said.

The pandemic has left the world’s oldest subway system facing an uncertain future. Tube, which relies heavily on ticket revenue, is facing a cash crisis. The rider has dropped to just 4% of its pre-pandemic number at the start of the outbreak and now carries about a quarter of the passengers it carried before the outbreak.

In a recent rush hour, a flurry of passengers rushed through the ticket gates to the usually victorious Victoria and King’s Cross stations, past posters reminding passengers to wear face-to-face clothing and “Be kind” to each other. .

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put the country on a slow path of blockade, with hairstyles and shops scheduled to reopen on April 12. But people are still advised to work from home if they can and take the subway only if necessary.

His government has given London Transport about £ 4 billion ($ 5.6 billion) in grants and loans to keep it running, although the money is set to run out on 18 May. Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the Labor Party.

Woodhead expects the number of passengers to increase, but “whether it’s 18 months or 36 months” is hard to predict. And it is possible that the pandemic has definitely changed travel patterns, with more walking and cycling and fewer rush hour rides.

In December, an independent report commissioned by TFL and the mayor said a “credible” forecast was that there would be a 20% reduction in public transport demand due to “travel changes and economic weakness” after the pandemic.

“I very much doubt that people don’t commute five days a week,” Woodhead said. “Some people will do it. But there will now be many people who will do it in a hybrid way. This will certainly happen, which on the one hand will help in terms of congestion, but on the other hand will not help in terms of revenue. ”

However, Woodhead is confident that Tube will be an essential part of London’s recovery.

“It’s just about the whole infrastructure and how London works,” he said.

Meanwhile, drivers like the Cocks will continue to do a job that has become “a little more secluded, more isolated.”

“It’s nice to know you’re keeping London moving,” he said. “You do your best to make everything go from A to B.”

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https://apnews.com/hub/understanding-the-outbreak