‘Travel safer’ advice to public from Transport for Wales

Transport for Wales (TfW) is sending out a clear message to the public – to Keep Wales Safe and only use public transport services if it’s essential and there’s no other travel alternative available to them.

The safety of colleagues and passengers is a top priority and they want to ensure that those with no other choice than to use their services will have enough space to do so safely.

TfW has launched a campaign aimed at public transport users, highlighting how travellers can keep themselves, transport staff and the rest of Wales as safe as possible, during these challenging times.

The current message from Welsh Government is that people should ‘Keep Wales Safe’ and stay local.

TfW is urging those using public transport to follow five key principles as part of the ‘travel safer’ campaign:

• Stay local – only travel if essential and don’t travel if you’re unwell, even with mild symptoms.
• Avoid busy periods – try not to touch surfaces like buttons, doors or your face and try to avoid eating.
• Follow our latest travel advice – stay 2 metres apart, wash your hands regularly and consider wearing a face covering.
• Exercise while you travel – walk or cycle for short journeys if you can
• Respect our staff and other passengers at all times

Throughout the past ten weeks and peak of the pandemic, passenger rail journeys have been down by 95% and TfW has already introduced additional safety measures to protect those travelling, with the majority being key workers.

• TfW is now taking further steps to improve safety including:
• Providing hand sanitiser at stations to aid with hand cleaning
• Enabling more contactless payment options, to reduce physical contact between staff and passengers
• Enhancing cleaning regimes on trains and stations
• Facilitating social distancing measures as much as possible through signs and visual markers on trains and stations
• Providing maximum capacity on rail services wherever possible
• Supporting bus operators with advice on how they can improve safety for bus drivers and passengers

James Price, Transport for Wales CEO said:

“Throughout this crisis the safety of our colleagues and passengers has been our top priority and this will continue as we move forward. We are following all advice from Welsh Government and I’d like to reinforce the governments message to ‘Keep Wales Safe’ and only use public transport if it’s absolutely necessary and you have no other travel alternative.

“I’d urge all those using public transport to adhere to our ‘travel safer’ advice. We are taking a range of steps to ensure we can improve safety as much as possible and would like our passengers to follow our advice and assist us in this process. Through working together we can continue to maintain the safety of our colleagues and passengers.”