27th January - Plan B easing - observations and usage

[Huntergreed]

Back in July, when the final stage of the roadmap was eased, we created a thread '19th July Lockdown Easing - Observations and Compliance' (thread can be found here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/19th-july-lockdown-easing-observations-and-compliance.220043/) to note the levels of compliance with voluntary mask wearing and social distancing requests.

As we have, once again, eased COVID restrictions and the mask mandate (in England) has ended once again, it seems appropriate to create a similar thread to note observations and the levels of compliance with voluntary requests to continue with social distancing measures and the wearing of face coverings.

This is not intended to discuss the effectiveness of these measures which has been done to death on other threads.

Whilst I'm not in England until Friday, I'm looking forward to hearing how compliance levels are this time and whether, if at all, they differ to November time before the introduction of Plan B.

 

[Dave91131]

I'll be straight out of the traps in the morning, heading to London for a spin on some units (not finally decided where but Liverpool Street and Waterloo are the most likely candidates) so will report back tomorrow night on my observations.

 

[davews]

Well the relaxation hardly got even a mention on the 6am Today headlines, all still obsessed with Prince Harry and birthday parties, so maybe it will be a non event. Trip up to London today so will also report back later.

 

[DelayRepay]

I just went to my little local shop for a bacon butty. The staff stopped wearing masks a few days ago, but unasked customers have been in the minority. Today there were three other customers, none were masked. This included the local councillor, who in the past has been quite vocal about the need for mask wearing on his social media.

As I was leaving, another customer arrived. He'd walked down the street in a mask, which he removed as he entered the shop. He appears to have completely reversed the rules that were in place until yesterday!

 

[Silver Cobra]

On my train to work this morning, the number of people wearing masks has already dropped from around 90% to around 40%. I'm not on the shop floor yet so can't comment on the situation in the store, but I will update later regarding that.

 

[Class 33]

Just been to Sainsbury's. In there and the small shopping arcade it is located in, I'd say roughly about 65% wearing masks. Not as good as I was hoping for, but an improvement on 19th July when it was surprisingly about 90% still wearing masks in there that day.

Had a quick look on Good Morning Britain at 7am this morning, and there was a very short report about the scrapping of face masks. It mentioned that rail unions and numerous transport operators are asking people to still wear face masks as a courtesy to others. However surprisingly the reporter mentioned that many people coming into Manchester Piccadilly this morning are saying they will NOT be complying with this. Sounds promising! There might be an extended report about this on the 8am bulletin. Will check that out on ITV+1 in a mo.

 

[LAX54]

Just been to Sainsbury's. In there and the small shopping arcade it is located in, I'd say roughly about 65% wearing masks. Not as good as I was hoping for, but an improvement on 19th July when it was surprisingly about 90% still wearing masks in there that day.

Had a quick look on Good Morning Britain at 7am this morning, and there was a very short report about the scrapping of face masks. It mentioned that rail unions and numerous transport operators are asking people to still wear face masks as a courtesy to others. However surprisingly the reporter mentioned that many people coming into Manchester Piccadilly this morning are saying they will NOT be complying with this. Sounds promising! There might be an extended report about this on the 8am bulletin. Will check that out on ITV+1 in a mo.

We know that the basic cloth and scarf type masks, are now deemed by some Countries as 'useless' and Germany at least has banned them, but has anyone actually seen anything on a box of disposables, that they help, or anyway work at stopping / reducing Covid ? (After 2 years and the rate of sale, you'd thought it would be written on every box!)

 

[westv]

I don't see any reason why the use of face coverings won't reduce in the same way it did last year. The situation appears to be following exactly the same path. Government says it's down to individuals, TFL says you still must, some supermarkets and TOCs say "we'd prefer if you did", most people will probably see how it goes and then fewer and fewer will cover up.

 

[jumble]

I was on a local bus this morning
6 or 7 passengers on lower deck and guess what
No Masks at all

 

[All Line Rover]

Just been to Sainsbury's. In there and the small shopping arcade it is located in, I'd say roughly about 65% wearing masks. Not as good as I was hoping for, but an improvement

I don't mean this as an insult, but why do you give a damn about the decisions of others whether or not to wear a face covering? What are you "hoping for" and why?

 

[Bungle73]

I've just been to peruse Odeon's website, and I'm pleased to report that (as far as England is concerned) they make absolutely zero mention of masks.

 

[bramling]

Back in July, when the final stage of the roadmap was eased, we created a thread '19th July Lockdown Easing - Observations and Compliance' (thread can be found here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/19th-july-lockdown-easing-observations-and-compliance.220043/) to note the levels of compliance with voluntary mask wearing and social distancing requests.

As we have, once again, eased COVID restrictions and the mask mandate (in England) has ended once again, it seems appropriate to create a similar thread to note observations and the levels of compliance with voluntary requests to continue with social distancing measures and the wearing of face coverings.

This is not intended to discuss the effectiveness of these measures which has been done to death on other threads.

Whilst I'm not in England until Friday, I'm looking forward to hearing how compliance levels are this time and whether, if at all, they differ to November time before the introduction of Plan B.

A journey on Tfl early this afternoon, back to 50/50 on LU, which is quite encouraging to see given the extent to which Khan is still pushing things. Walking through Euston mainline concourse, mask use down to about 20% or less - though it's never been particularly high since being brought back in.

Sainsbury's at Euston was similar - 20% or less. Again, not been particularly high in recent weeks.

 

[MikeWM]

I've just been to peruse Odeon's website, and I'm pleased to report that (as far as England is concerned) they make absolutely zero mention of masks.

Odeon had the best approach to this back in July too, and their staff in most locations were quick to abandon them. Good for them!

Vue and Cineworld continued to 'encourage' people to use masks all through - although not many people appeared to be encouraged Their staff continued for quite a while too, although eventually the number in masks started to fall off.

 

[LAX54]

Just been to Sainsbury's. In there and the small shopping arcade it is located in, I'd say roughly about 65% wearing masks. Not as good as I was hoping for, but an improvement on 19th July when it was surprisingly about 90% still wearing masks in there that day.

Our local Sainsburys had a big blue sign outside (at 1130am) stating that masks must be worn unless you are exempt.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

A co-op in Headington, Oxford still has many people wearing masks. Rare to see one not wearing one. And they still have the "you must wear a face covering" signs.

 

[Class 33]

I don't mean this as an insult, but why do you give a damn about the decisions of others whether or not to wear a face covering? What are you "hoping for" and why?

I'm hoping we can get back to complete normality and zero or at least very very low numbers of people wearing face masks. Seeing all these people wearing them is horrible and dystopian and a constant reminder of Covid. We really need to move on from this now, especially now the government has scrapped these ridiculous face mask laws again(and hopefully for the VERY last time too!). Companies like TfL should not be allowed to tell us "It is compulsory to wear face masks...." and threats of being pulled off of vehicles and being fined(it seems), this should be made illegal. We really do not deserve to be treated like this! Sadiq Khan who came up with this for TfL, should drop this nonsense and concentrate on more important things in the capital like gun and knife crime. Also all these companies keeping up their "Please wear a face covering" type signage and tedious PA announcements going off every few minutes, they really need to drop all this now, move on and help get this country back to normal, rather than dragging all this on for months and months on end to come. Do these people and companies not realise that all this ongoing signage and PA announcements about face mask wearing(and even social distancing, which was officially scrapped over 6 months ago!!) can effect people's mental health? It has certainly effected my mental health. By all means allow face masks to be optional for those that still wish to wear them, but I hope this receeds over the coming weeks.

On the subject of PA announcements on trains about face masks, I read on here somewhere that even during the period of 19th July-29th November when face masks were no longer mandatory on public transport, some conductors putting out PA messages such as "I see that there are a disappointing amount of people not wearing face masks on this train today. You should all be wearing face masks out of respect to others. Covid has not gone away....". Basically shaming people not wearing masks when it's no longer even compulsory! Absolutely disgraceful. This sort of messaging really should not be allowed.

 

[NorthOxonian]

A co-op in Headington, Oxford still has many people wearing masks. Rare to see one not wearing one. And they still have the "you must wear a face covering" signs.

Though Oxford has always had extremely high levels of mask wearing - even last October and November the large majority wore them in shops and many even wore them outside. It seems to be a bit of a bubble.

 

[Smidster]

Obviously I am really happy that the mandate has gone.

I just hope that everyone is capable of treating each other with a bit of respect and courtesy - I couldn't care less if you wear a mask / don't wear a mask / wear clown shoes...it is absolutely none of my business and you should be able to make whatever decision you are comfortable with based on your own circumstances.

Just to add as well looks like a few places that were using Covid Passes voluntarily before November are not going back to them this time - For example the 02 concert venues will not require Covid passes anymore which they did last year even when not required by law - this is a step forward.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Called into Tesco around 1300. I would say 90% were wearing a face covering of some kind. Social distancing hasn't really been happening since very early in the pandemic. Some space given, no-one up close and personal but not like the days when customers slowly followed each other around at five paces either.

 

[ABB125]

Of the three other passengers I can see in the voyager I'm on, one has a mask on. Which he took off whilst making a phone call earlier.
Earlier today, as my pendolino to Edinburgh departed Carlisle, the guard made an announcement that we would shortly be entering Scotland, where masks are still mandatory.
Generally, I think fewer people have been wearing masks today, though I haven't really been paying attention to it.

Tomorrow I'm off to Wales, so I'll report back what it's like there. Unfortunately, I'm travelling in a group, among whom I'm one of the people who's meant to be enforcing any relevant covid rules for the duration of the trip.

Just called at York, the passengers who got on were all wearing masks, the few I can see on the platform are a roughly equal mix.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Though Oxford has always had extremely high levels of mask wearing - even last October and November the large majority wore them in shops and many even wore them outside. It seems to be a bit of a bubble.

For the buses (outside of the mandate period), I wouldn't say that levels of mask wearing were that high. But one thing I will say is that on the day they first bought back the mask mandate (30 November), I caught some buses around Oxford, and practically 100% of people were wearing masks onboard the buses.

 

[ABB125]

Of the passengers who I saw boarding at Leeds, there was roughly a 50/50 split

 

[Silver Cobra]

So after my first day working since the mandate was revoked, I can say that around 70% of my colleagues were still wearing masks today, alongside around 60% of customers.

 

[davews]

Martins Heron to Waterloo today around 60% with masks, a drop but not far enough. Similar on Jubilee line, Overground and South Eastern, they diligently put them on as if it is a duty. While waiting at Canada Water the announcement to wear a mask was repeated about four times in the ten minutes I was there. PIS announcement on the train to wear masks was heard twice but the guard never mentioned it at all. But the Half Moon pub in Herne Hill was magic, totally normal and cheered up even more when a group of new mums appeared showing off their little ones, they were certainly enjoying themselves.

I think it will be a couple of weeks before we seen a real shift.

 

[L401CJF]

Announcement from the TM on my Avanti this morning whilst departing Chester for Crewe, saying that as we are now in England masks are personal choice which I quite liked!

Mask use significantly lower today than yesterday. I'd say 90% on the Merseyrail service this morning were maskless, about 50/50 on the Avanti - but it had just come from Wales.

Hotel I've been training in, perspex screens gone from the front desk overnight and staff all maskless!

Nice to see a bit of normality again!

 

[Bald Rick]

On Thameslink today - same number of people in masks as there has been for the last week (about 70/30).

 

[Ilovetrains43]

On Thameslink today - same number of people in masks as there has been for the last week (about 70/30).

People are still wearing them then. Interesting.

 

[Phil R]

Guildford Waitrose early evening about 80-85% still masked up, with a slightly higher proportion of staff than customers having liberated their faces. During the recent mandate the face hiding rate was rock solid at 98-99% or so.
Some of you may be familiar with the spoof Facebook group 'Lack of Yellow Front End Warning Panel Wibble Page'. To adapt their methodology, I had hardly seen anybody in the supermarket for weeks, suddenly today I saw a couple of dozen. It's been a good job they have self-service tills.

​

 

[bramling]

Khan’s enforcement staff out at Euston this evening, though a bit half-hearted. Saw a few people put a mask on whilst passing through the booking hall then taking it off. These enforcement staff are hardly a great use of TfL’s finite cash.

Meanwhile I’m just on a Tube train now, about ten in the car and I’m the only one without a mask. A little disappointing, but it’s early days yet.

 

[Jimini]

I’m on the last northbound XC service to Brum from Reading right now (why so early I hear you all cry ) and it’s about a 60/40 split in favour of masks, I’m sorry to say.