Crystal ball - will coronavirus effect our travel (public and private)?

[whole diary]

[nickswift99]

Diversification... Taxi drivers will need to be come shopping/food delivery drivers. It won't pay as much but it will be some income.

NHS and care homes will be very short of people. In many areas taxi drivers are required to hold a DBS^» (Deutsch Bahn Schenker - UK^▸ (United Kingdom) website) check so could be used as untrained auxiliaries. Again, not as great pay but it would be something.

People will get creative to earn money.

[TonyK]

Judging by the train in to Oxford this morning there won't be anyone left to catch them.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on TV^▸ (Thames Valley) that a Saturday service on public transport  is likely at all times, and less as the situation dictates. Buses and trains are being cleaned using the stuff that is used in hospitals, but, as Citizen Khan points out, they still have people on them, and platforms or bus stops will have tens or hundreds of waiting passengers.

And just looking at the long queue of taxis at Oxford this morning suggests to me that lots of people are going to lose their jobs and/or income; lets hope the government comes up with something quick.

The government is going to be pretty busy as it is. Non-essential stuff will be put to one side, but that still leaves crisis management. I am not going to rely on the government to solve any of my problems, and I would not recommend anyone else to do so.

[Marlburian]

Diversification... Taxi drivers will need to be come shopping/food delivery drivers. It won't pay as much but it will be some income.

NHS and care homes will be very short of people. In many areas taxi drivers are required to hold a DBS^» (Deutsch Bahn Schenker - UK^▸ (United Kingdom) website) check so could be used as untrained auxiliaries. Again, not as great pay but it would be something.

People will get creative to earn money.

Lots of laid-off airline workers, some with basic first-aid training, could help out as volunteers, not in a paramedic capacity, but checking on those most affected. Also there are Priti Patel's "economically inactive", notably students.

Good for them to do something positive, rather than mope around. One problem is there is a lot of scope for s***b*gs to exploit the vulnerable. "Give me your debit card/some cash, and I'll do your shopping".

[Marlburian]

Conscientiously I've just brought up the Waitrose website with a view to ordering a home delivery for next week (which I thought might be optimistic): "Sorry, waitrose.com is unavailable. We are working hard to get it back up and running, so please do try us again a little later."

[bradshaw]

I found problems ordering on Monday but it seems to be worse now; at least then I could get through to sign in but it crashed a number of times before I was able to place my order.

[Marlburian]

After two attempts, I got onto the Waitrose website, logged on and got a long list of purchases I've made on weekly visits. (Shall have to edit that)  I worked my way through it, bypassed a couple of pages suggesting things that I might like or have forgotten, and reached the booking-a-delivery page. I ploughed on and finally got a spare slot on April 21.

I'm not blaming Waitrose (and I think they may improve things, so I'll be keeping an eye on the bookings page) - obviously there's been a torrent of new business.  I think that the Government restrictions aim for the ideal, but there will be an inevitable shortfall in implementing them. At this early stage, I'm not sure how completely I want to go in slavishly adopting them - especially give the nonchalance, cynicism and stupidity of others.

[Sixty3Closure]

Ocado has stopped taking new customers but there's still a virtual queuing page before you can start shopping. deliveries seem to be about two weeks out.

Going back to trains I've got an advance ticket booked for early April but the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website currently says no refunds. I think at the moment there's still a mismatch between government advice and how businesses respond.

I've been in (virtual) back to back incident planning meetings and I suspect most other companies are still at that stage but still like to know if i can have my £130 back

[SandTEngineer]

I can't find the source at present, but reported on other forums that the government is on the brink of nationalising Airlines, Railways and Buses.  Wouldn't it be ironic if it was a Tory government that ended up doing that.......

[grahame]

I can't find the source at present, but reported on other forums that the government is on the brink of nationalising Airlines, Railways and Buses.  Wouldn't it be ironic if it was a Tory government that ended up doing that.......

Mail Online

Airlines, rail and bus firms in Britain could be NATIONALISED to help them through coronavirus pandemic, says Grant Shapps as he warns timetables could be reduced to avoid 'ghost trains'

[bradshaw]

From Twitter the share prices for First, Stagecoach, National Express and Go-Ahead.

Suggestion that it would be a cheap option to nationalise!

https://twitter.com/edwardaleigh/status/1239978481326440455?s=21

[eXPassenger]

I can't find the source at present, but reported on other forums that the government is on the brink of nationalising Airlines, Railways and Buses.  Wouldn't it be ironic if it was a Tory government that ended up doing that.......

Italy is nationalising Airitalia

[Celestial]

From Twitter the share prices for First, Stagecoach, National Express and Go-Ahead.

Suggestion that it would be a cheap option to nationalise!

https://twitter.com/edwardaleigh/status/1239978481326440455?s=21

Well two franchises expire in 14 days, so a fairly easy option to take to bring them back in house, other than it would be very short notice to put directly run operations in place if the expectation had been until a few days ago that they were going to be rolled over into new direct awards.  Also I'd have thought SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and Transpennine's owners would be quite happy to hand in the keys too sooner rather than later, unless they are handed a blank chequebook to cover COVID-19. 

[TonyK]

Well two franchises expire in 14 days, so a fairly easy option to take to bring them back in house, other than it would be very short notice to put directly run operations in place if the expectation had been until a few days ago that they were going to be rolled over into new direct awards.  Also I'd have thought SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and Transpennine's owners would be quite happy to hand in the keys too sooner rather than later, unless they are handed a blank chequebook to cover COVID-19. 

Nationalisation of the railways (again) is often quoted as a solution to all of mankind's problems. I wonder, though, if private enterprise can't make money out of it, how much worse will it be with the civil service involved?

[Robin Summerhill]

... especially given the nonchalance, cynicism and stupidity of others.

It does appear however that people are being remarkably selective in their precautions.

Since I retired I tend to shop for little but often, and I went out this morning, to get milk, eggs and a bag of chicken portions. An observation – we have people afraid to go out, afraid to get on public transport, afraid to go to the pub or the cafe, afraid to go to work, but quite happy tp stand packed like sardines in the supermarket till queues to buy things that the majority of ‘em don’t actually need.

Perhaps they think that supermarkets give you immunity to the disease...

[Celestial]

Well two franchises expire in 14 days, so a fairly easy option to take to bring them back in house, other than it would be very short notice to put directly run operations in place if the expectation had been until a few days ago that they were going to be rolled over into new direct awards.  Also I'd have thought SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and Transpennine's owners would be quite happy to hand in the keys too sooner rather than later, unless they are handed a blank chequebook to cover COVID-19. 

Nationalisation of the railways (again) is often quoted as a solution to all of mankind's problems. I wonder, though, if private enterprise can't make money out of it, how much worse will it be with the civil service involved?

I agree. The TfL^» (Transport for London - about) model for the overground seems to work quite well, but there is the risk that when money is tight investment will be limited. We're already seeing that in the enhancements programme for nationalised Network Rail, where the industry is complaining at the paucity of new projects and the hurdles needed to be jumped before approval is given.  The Castlefield corridor is probably the best example.