Northern wants its passengers to have confidence in returning to the railway after coronavirus lockdown and has this week launched a new campaign to highlight work being done to keep them safe as the lockdown eases.
Extra cleaning is being carried out on trains and at stations, social distancing is still in place across the Northern network, and face coverings are still mandatory for everyone travelling by train.
A spokesperson for Northern said: “As an industry we have been working hard to make the railway as safe as possible, so we are ready for more people to return to our trains and stations.
“We know it has been a difficult time for the communities we serve and we're grateful that so many listened to our advice to only make essential journeys during the worst of the crisis.
“We have more cleaning staff – both on train and at stations – than ever before and they are working around the clock to keep our network clean and reduce the potential for the virus to spread.
“We have teams at 18 locations across our network who clean the trains throughout the day, focussing on touch points, litter and toilets. All our trains that have been in service receive a full clean at the end of the night at the depots and stations to make sure they are ready for our customers the next morning.
“We're running more trains and carriages during peak hours to give our customers as much space as possible and are putting additional soap in toilets to make sure our customers can wash their hands more frequently.”
Northern employs 430 staff to clean trains during the day and night, and are supported by 150 colleagues who are dedicated to keeping Northern's stations clean.
Northern has also invested in a new cleaning product, Zoono, to help protect passengers further.
Zoono cleans surfaces and kills bacteria and viruses and also protects each surface for up to 30 days. It can be wiped on to surfaces, or buttons, or as a mist for surfaces, seats and floors.
The spokesperson added: “Our cleaning staff are doing a fantastic job, but we need our customers to play their part too.
“Everyone travelling by train must still wear a face covering, unless specific exceptions apply to them, and people should still wash their hands frequently – at least before and after every journey.
“We're also asking our customers to consider the times of their journeys and to try to travel at quieter times, outside of the peak hours, when trains are not as busy.
“And finally, all rail travellers should take any litter off the train with them at the end of their journey. Removing litter is a huge task in itself – on a normal day we remove up to 20 tonnes from our trains – and, at the moment, our teams are concentrating on cleaning touch-points and other parts of the trains. Customers can help us keep the trains as clean as possible by taking their rubbish with them. This not only frees up time for our cleaning team, but also helps prevent possible cross-contamination.”
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I used the train on Sunday 19th July to blackpool with my family there was no social distancing people were sat on all seats and some were standing. I did not see any hand gel anywhere also the amount of people who had no face masks on was terrible if some did as soon as they sat down they would take it off I was extremely worried for safety of my family who were following the rules
Have confidence in northern what a joke. I work for NHS and had to use train all the way through. Trains are still filthy. Staff at Oxford rd Manchester don’t wear any face covers at all. Oh so much for social distancing they block of an entire section for conductors who never come out of their little room at the back. This company hasn’t got better if anything worse than they ever were
Can’t social distance because the one I use to get to work is running every 2 hrs so is normally packed during the day esp with people going to the beach
Will Northern introduce more extra trains for some of the services including Windermere, Barrow-in-Furness, Workington, Hartlepool, Whitby, Saltburn and Scarborough. If they are to inherit more rolling stocks from elsewhere or to order more CAF Class 195s for these routes. And extra Class 331s or Class 321s to be used on the Newcastle-Chathill/Berwick-Upon-Tweed.
This article contains an absolute tissue of lies
I travelled on Thursday with Northern on the Newcastle to Carlisle line
When the lock down was on, Northern were running double length trains. Seats that were not to be occupied had coverings saying not in use
Fast forward to last week and Northern have completely abandoned these safety measures. Trains have been reduced in length by half. All seats can be occupied. Passengers can sit where they want without any regulation from staff. When the conductor came around she couldn’t care less that four people sat together.
There were zero safety measures in place on the trains I travelled on
Northern have returned to government control after the awful mess arriva made of the franchise.
But nothing has changed. Its still the same rampant indifference to passenger safety.
Is it any wonder that people are scared to travel
Not that the staff could possibly care less.