London tube battles to stay in line

LONDON (AP) – When London stopped when a national blockade against the coronavirus was imposed a year ago, the tube continued to function as an essential service. But it was a strange and unnerving experience for his workers.

Joseph Cocks, a Circle Line subway driver who runs around the city center, said he could “count on one hand the number of people who boarded the train.”

“It was shocking and surprising to see it at the peak of a Monday morning, seeing almost no one,” he said of the system that opened in 1863 and is known colloquially as the tube.

Its continued operation was a sign that, even in a pandemic, the heart of London was still beating.

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Plagues, fires, war – London has outlived them all. But he never had a year like this. The coronavirus killed more than 15,000 Londoners and shook the foundations of one of the largest cities in the world. As a rapid mass vaccination campaign holds the promise of reopening, the Associated Press looks at the impact of the pandemic on London’s people and institutions and asks what the future might bring.

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In a city where almost half of families do not have a car, public transport keeps economic and social life on the move. Before the national blockade on March 23, 2020, about 5 million trips a day were made on the subway. Its iconic map, which resembles a multicolored circuit board, is an emblem of the city and an essential tool for residents and visitors.

In the early weeks, when most Britons were told to stay home and fear the outdated facts about the virus, Underground officials continued to work, but worried about the possibility of falling ill.

“We didn’t know exactly how bad it was,” said Cocks. “There were concerns about how dangerous this job was, and you heard stories of people on the subway getting coronaviruses. So, we didn’t know how fast it spread and how safe we ​​were. “

COVID-19 had a major impact on Transport for London, which operates the city’s metro, suburban rail and bus network. At least 89 TFL employees died of coronavirus, most of them bus drivers, whose death rate was three times the national average, according to a study by University College London.

The virus hit people most in public jobs, and the death toll was higher among ethnic minorities than among their white compatriots. The reasons are thought to include jobs, underlying health conditions and economic inequality.

About a third of the TFL’s workforce belongs to an ethnic minority, partly a legacy of thousands of people from Britain’s former colonies who came to the UK after World War II to support an exhausted workforce .

Brian Woodhead, Underground’s director of customer service, says the network acted quickly to protect employees and passengers. Masks are mandatory, hand sanitizer is abundant, escalator handrails are illuminated with ultraviolet light that kills viruses, and one-way systems reduce congestion in station corridors. On buses, drivers sit in closed taxis.

“As much as anyone can in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, I think the tube is a safe environment,” said Woodhead.

He cites a recent study by Imperial College London, which tested the virus on surfaces and in the air in the subway and found none. This is partly due to people like Ivelina Dimitrova, who oversees 20 cleaners at stations, including the busy King’s Cross. She and her team – mostly immigrants from Eastern Europe, Africa and South Asia – regularly spray the surfaces with hospital disinfectant.

“We had to change our work routine and everything, and (we had to) do it quickly” when the virus arrived, she said, adding that they felt constant stress from being infected.

Now, she said, “We have a strong morale, because we feel that we have to do what we can do just to keep ourselves safe, our families safe, other people around us safe.”

Passengers who previously paid little attention to the cleaning staff, now sometimes stop to thank them, she said.

The pandemic has left the world’s oldest metro system facing an uncertain future. The metro, which relies heavily on ticket revenues, faces a cash crisis. The number of passengers plummeted to just 4% of pre-pandemic numbers at the beginning of the outbreak and now carries about a quarter of the passengers it carried before the outbreak.

During a recent rush hour, a group of passengers hurried through the ticket gates at the usually crowded stations in Victoria and King’s Cross, passing signs reminding travelers to wear facial covers and “be kind” to each other.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the country on a slow road to get out of the blockade, with hairdressers and shops scheduled to reopen on April 12. But people are still advised to work from home if they can and to use the subway only if necessary.

His government gave Transport for London around £ 4 billion ($ 5.6 billion) in subsidies and loans to keep it running, although the money is due to end on May 18. Financing negotiations have been overshadowed by the acrimony between Johnson’s conservative government and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the Labor Party.

Woodhead expects the number of passengers to increase, but “whether it’s 18 months or 36 months” is difficult to predict. And the pandemic may have changed travel patterns forever, with more walking and cycling and less commuting during rush hour.

In December, an independent report commissioned by TFL and the mayor said that a “reliable” forecast was that there would be a 20% reduction in demand for public transport due to “travel changes and economic weakness” after the pandemic.

“People don’t move, I highly doubt it, five days a week,” said Woodhead. “Some people go. But now there will be many people who will do this in a hybrid way. This will certainly happen, which on the one hand will help from the point of view of congestion, but on the other hand it will not help from the point of view of revenue ”.

Still, Woodhead is confident that the tube will be a key part of London’s recovery.

“It’s just intertwined across the infrastructure and the way London works,” he said.

In the meantime, drivers like Cocks will continue to do work that has become “a little more isolated, a little more isolated”.

“It is good to know that you are keeping London moving,” he said. “You are doing your part to keep everything going from A to B.”

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