CORONAVIRUS UPDATE FROM GOVIA THAMESLINK RAILWAY (GTR)
Tragically, many families across the UK have already lost loved ones to COVID-19. We were devastated to learn that two GTR families are among them, with two of our dedicated colleagues passing away this week. We are doing everything we can to support their families.
We know COVID-19 will harm many more people across the UK and we are doing everything we can to reduce the risk to our customers and our colleagues. Encouraging people to only make essential journeys plays a critically important role, and I would like to thank everyone who is helping to share that message.
The wider briefing below provides an update on engineering projects over the Easter bank holiday weekend, a new partnership with Women’s Aid to support those fleeing domestic abuse and wider updates across GTR.
Nationwide partnership with Women’s Aid
From today, people fleeing domestic abuse anywhere in Britain during the coronavirus lockdown can apply for free train travel to refuge accommodation, through a partnership between train companies and Women’s Aid.
The initiative comes in response to campaigners reporting an increase in domestic violence reports since coronavirus lockdown measures came into force. The industry-wide scheme follows the successful launch of similar initiatives by Southeastern and GWR prior to the coronavirus outbreak.
Non-critical improvement schemes paused
Work on many station improvement schemes, where the improvement is not safety-critical such as the St Albans station redevelopment or all those funded through the Passenger Benefit Fund have been temporarily paused. This is to reflect disruption to the supply chain and to protect the safety of the contractor teams.
This pause will be reviewed on a weekly basis and we will be in touch as soon as work restarts.
Working behind the scenes to keep the railway safe
Many of you were in touch last week in response to last Friday’s ‘Railway Day’ initiative and work is continuing right across the network. The safety of everyone who interacts with the railway is always a priority. At its heart and as a starting position for our staff, that includes ensuring that any colleague that needs to be, is shielded, and more widely than any colleague that practically can, is now working entirely from home. This includes the temporary closure this week of several smaller ticket offices to release staff for safety-critical roles and to keep front-line staffing at the lowest appropriate level.
Our priority is to create a safe working environment. We have significantly enhanced cleaning with new teams, equipment and approaches and are taking every opportunity to remind colleagues of the role of social distancing, handwashing and the importance of avoiding the touching of faces.
One area which has been of interest to customers is how social distancing works in front line roles, where it is temporarily not possible, such as when working in teams to complete heavy maintenance tasks.
Our approach to tasks such as these is for our teams to dynamically risk assess each interaction, taking any opportunity to reduce the risk involved.
Our starting point is that only work that is essential to keeping the railway safe and operational will be completed. If a job is deemed essential, we will ensure that the individuals involved are fit and healthy, that they are practicing good hand hygiene and that the physical area is as clean as possible. This process will then repeat once the task at hand is completed to ensure that the risk is minimised before social distancing is resumed.
We know that just like for everyone, this is an enormously unsettling time for our colleagues and we are doing everything we can to reassure them. Our message to our colleagues is that their jobs are secure, that we will support them, that we understand what they are going through and that we are in it together.