London's Transport Commissioner Mike Brown on our response to coronavirus
26 March 2020
Support NHS heroes and TfL — please stay at home
MY heartfelt thanks go to the people of London for acting on the instruction of the Mayor and Government to stay at home and not travel to help fight the spread of coronavirus, save lives and protect our NHS.
We have seen Tube and rail passenger numbers plummet by 92 per cent and by almost 80 per cent on buses. This is enabling the transport network to serve the needs of health and other critical workers across the city.
In the same way as national rail services into London have been reduced, we are also running fewer Tube trains. This is because about 30 per cent of our own drivers, station staff, controllers and maintenance teams are not able to come to work, including those self-isolating or ill with coronavirus. The training involved with these roles takes many months and it is simply not possible to replace them immediately while maintaining a safe service. Our staff keeping the network running are making a heroic effort.
We are running as many trains in the early morning as possible. There has been crowding on some sections of the Tube at these times as London has adapted to our new ways of working. We have dealt with this by making some changes to these morning services, by applying station control measures and by working with 500 British Transport Police officers while also encouraging people to spread their time of travel. We are working with national rail services to ensure we manage crowding hotspots together too.
We have also taken the step to temporarily pause all TfL and Crossrail construction work to reduce the number of construction workers needing to travel into central London. I am extremely grateful for the willing help and support we have received on this from the industry and our supply chain.