Planning for restoration of services

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Sitting on a confined space on a bus for an extended period is much more risky than passing someone momentarily in a relatively open supermarket. And you can't control who comes and sits near you either. I would not be comfortable riding on a bus at the moment, whereas am willing to brave the supermarket shop, albeit trying to use delivery services where possible to minimise journeys out.

Agree completely re the government advice, but I guess we should remember that the advice is there to protect us, our friends and families and society at large. So it feels a bit like cutting your nose off to spite your face to ignore the advice, although sadly I think many people will now do that.

Yes - agreed - (And bolded in different words at the end of my last post)

As for whether the email you got was correct.  At the moment government advice is that public transport is only for essential business, which I would imagine would be possible within Monday to Friday, so I think it was fair ...

I have several examples (essential works in both food distribution and in specialised care) which do not (and cannot) stop at the weekend, where gaping holes in public transport provision below the norm, at the weekend, has caused problems "I cannot do my job".  And (sorry to say) answering Robin, yes, challenges to the people involved (multiple, again) in such a way that they felt intimidated, as to what they were doing travelling around outside normal hours.

To clarify though - my original comments were written before Robin named the bus company he was quoting.  None of my examples are from that bus company (Faresaver), and my examples have been passed through / are in the hands of usual customer service  / support channels.  The assumption of "anything outside Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 is not essential" is false, but seems widely made.

[Robin Summerhill]

Celestial's reply shows that sometimes even a long post needs further clarification! 

I would agree that long bus journeys may be a different matter - if (and it's a big "if "at the moment) anybody else is on the bus, but mine isn't. We are talking about a circular town bus service that is timed 17 minutes from emd to end. The reason I use it is that the town centre is downhill for me, so I often walk down and only have to lug the shopping to the bus stop on the way back and not up the hill.

Secondly we are all creatures of habit. Over the years during my working life I have done plenty of getting up at daft 'o clock in the morning, and as a now-retired old git I have no need to do it any more. Until the lockdown, bus passes were not available until after 0930 anyway and, whilst that restriction was lifted "for the duration" many people's daily timetables were affected by it, and those timetables have not necessarily changed.

One of the reasons I wrote to Faresaver at all was that during the course of last week I spoke to two separate people in the local park, both regular bus passengers, and both of which complained about the emergency timetable and that the buses were running too early, and they were completely unprompted by me. It therefore became clear that my views on the matter were not unique.

And yes I have access to a car. One driven by somebody else. A somebody else who might not want (and often does not want) to go for her own purposes. So I feel that I am burdening someone else by asking her to do me a favour. And no matter if it is somebody I've spent 17 years with or not - it still makes me feel like a burden on somebody else.

I don't want to be a burden on others for transport. In my circumstances that's what buses and trains are for; to alleviate that burden.

And finally, the wording of that email did remind me a little of the "old days" when the attitude in shops was often that they thought they were doing you a favour by letting them serve you/ take your money. That's why I included the name of the person who sent it...

[TonyK]

The Scottish version of easing lockdown

People are still being urged to "stay at home as much as possible", with Ms Sturgeon warning that the virus "is still out there".

although people from two different households can meet, they must keep two metres apart
People should stay at home as much as possible
Anyone meeting up with other households should do so in groups of no more than eight people
we should not meet people from more than one other household each day.

you can play golf, tennis, bowls and fishing
sit and sunbathe in parks
travel, preferably by walking or cycling, for recreation nearby where you live, but avoid public transport
strong advice is not to travel more than five miles for recreation and leisure

It's all getting a bit Pythonesque now.
"It's perfectly simple, Mr McTavish, you can play golf with Mr McDougall, so long as you stay at least the length of two golf bats apart, and carry your own kit, unless the caddy is a member of your household, in which case he can have dinner with your wife later, but you can't unless McDougall is meeting with another family, in which case Mrs McDougall can dine with you and your wife, so long as the caddy self-isolates for 14 days, but as the clubhouse is closed and you can't get hammered at the bar and try to outbore everybody else with fairy tales of how you nearly beat Tony Jacklin, there really isn't much point in playing golf in the first place."

[grahame]

It's all getting a bit Pythonesque now.

"It's perfectly simple, Mr McTavish, you can play golf with Mr McDougall, so long as you stay at least the length of two golf bats apart, and carry your own kit, unless the caddy is a member of your household, in which case he can have dinner with your wife later, but you can't unless McDougall is meeting with another family, in which case Mrs McDougall can dine with you and your wife, so long as the caddy self-isolates for 14 days, but as the clubhouse is closed and you can't get hammered at the bar and try to outbore everybody else with fairy tales of how you nearly beat Tony Jacklin, there really isn't much point in playing golf in the first place."

Love it - Strikes me as akin to playing Mornington Crescent with Cumming's Castling in odd number months.

[TonyK]

Love it - Strikes me as akin to playing Mornington Crescent with Cumming's Castling in odd number months.

Now there's a thought! I'm taking this thing pretty seriously, as I'm no Dominic Cummings but I know enough to think my odds of survival if I caught this thing would not ber great. Somewhere around the chances of Tiverton Town winning the FA Cup, I suppose. So I am staying home and casting the occasional eye towards the cosmic fish tank for news, and starting the newspaper at page six. My wife has become utterly obsessed with r-numbers, social discrediting and all that, and has even learned metric. That last could be down to me - when she asked how far 2 metres was in traditional units, I suggested it was around a furlong and two chains.
For goodness sake, don't let her find out that we have actually got slightly light-hearted. I know what she would do, even if she had to sew them back on first.

[johnneyw]

Mornington Crescent, Cummings Lockdown Variant game play?  Okay.  I open with Castle Barnard because I can.

[grahame]

Now there's a thought! I'm taking this thing pretty seriously, as I'm no Dominic Cummings but I know enough to think my odds of survival if I caught this thing would not ber great. Somewhere around the chances of Tiverton Town winning the FA Cup, I suppose. So I am staying home and casting the occasional eye towards the cosmic fish tank for news, and starting the newspaper at page six. My wife has become utterly obsessed with r-numbers, social discrediting and all that, and has even learned metric.

Staying home and treating the whole thing with extreme caution is the only sensible approach - especially for any of us / those who may be at a high risk.  100% backing you on that.

There is - for some of us - a dark humour which helps relieve the intensity and pressure of a nothing-to-do-at-present life style.  Not going to do anything stupid; going to suggest others don't do anything stupid either.

Can I meet friends and relatives?

From Monday in England, you will be able to meet up to six people from different households outside - either in parks or now also in private gardens - as long as you remain 2m (6ft) apart.

From Friday in Scotland, members of two different households will be allowed to meet up outdoors if you maintain social distancing. Groups cannot be bigger than eight, and people are "strongly recommended" not to meet more than one other household per day.

In Wales, the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) understands that people from two different households will be able to meet each other outdoors from Monday.

Groups of four to six people who are not in the same household can meet outdoors in Northern Ireland, although outdoor weddings with 10 people present may be allowed from 8 June.

But we were speculating this morning about the five local people (it does not say friends) we would least want to have in our garden and thanking our lucky stars that we don't have too.   We were also wondering if social media in Northern Ireland is going to be overrun with adverts like "Fourth person wanted to join a group of three so we can meet outdoors" ...

Back to the top of the post ... we're going nowhere unless we have to, advising by example and words others to do the same, and where we have to go out (or have people here), distancing, wearing face masks, washing hands ...

[grahame]

Secondly we are all creatures of habit. Over the years during my working life I have done plenty of getting up at daft 'o clock in the morning, and as a now-retired old git I have no need to do it any more. Until the lockdown, bus passes were not available until after 0930 anyway and, whilst that restriction was lifted "for the duration" many people's daily timetables were affected by it, and those timetables have not necessarily changed.

Not sure for other areas but for Devon - https://www.traveldevon.info/bus/national-bus-pass/

UPDATE: National Bus Pass usage during COVID-19 situation

Cessation of Early Use of National Bus Passes in Devon – The last day you will be able to use your National Bus Pass before 09:30 weekdays will be Friday 5th June 2020. As more and more workers are returning and the need to maintain social distancing on bus services drastically reduces capacity, early morning bus capacity now needs to return to people who are using services to access employment.

Travel with the National Bus Pass will revert to the standard operating times from Saturday 6th June 2020. This is unlimited travel weekends and Bank Holidays and 09:30 weekdays until the end of service.

[grahame]

I am not aware of any bus driver refusing to carry anybody, or indeed ask what they were travellig for. Indeed, how would they know the purpose of the journey without asing the potential passenger?

I quoted examples (known to me via directly involved trusted sources) yesterday of people travelling with legitimate reason being made to feel very, very uncomfortable.  Not putting them in the public domain for privacy reasons. But here - from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) this morning is an example of a public transport driver refusing to carry someone he believed should not be travelling.

A golfer says he was verbally abused by a train driver who accused him of ignoring government advice on using public transport.

Glenn Macdonald, from Norfolk, said the driver swore at him when he got on a train with his golf bag after lockdown rules on the sport were relaxed.

The driver said he would not leave until the golfer got off.

Greater Anglia trains apologised for the spat but said government advice was still to avoid public transport.

It said it was investigating the matter.

Mr Macdonald, who does not own a car, and lives in a studio flat in Cromer, was heading to West Runton golf course on 18 May when the alleged abuse occurred.

Very much the exception, I suggest - the press are very good at finding the wrong in a sea of right.  And it typically takes two twits for something to blow up like this.

[grahame]

And restoration of parking charges ... from Wiltshire Council

We are reintroducing parking charges at all car parks, & on residential & on-street parking areas in the county from Mon 1 June. All parking permits & season tickets will also restart & parking wardens will enforce parking contraventions

[Marlburian]

... Staying home and treating the whole thing with extreme caution is the only sensible approach - especially for any of us / those who may be at a high risk... 

Out of interest, how completely are you "staying at home"? I haven't seen several elderly neighbours for months, not that any of them ventured out much before Lockdown. I rather wondered then what they did all day. And an acquaintance from the 1960s has suddenly popped up via eMails and says he's  been self-isolating at home because he has diabetes. I wondered if he's ever left home? Surely no harm early in the morning when there's no-one much else around?

I've had no choice but to do my own shopping and feel OK with that but, as you may have gathered from earlier posts, I've ventured further afield for longish walks. I think that the risk to me and others in the fresh air is minimal, especially as I haven't come to within two metres of anyone.

Pre-Covid, I would use the train to give me more range for walks and don't see much risk with this. More often than not in the good old days, there would be only one or two other people in the same compartment. But I accept that to do so at the moment would be unacceptable.

One other thought and it's slightly off-topic: I wonder in what circumstances people are contracting Covid now? We'll all aware of the high proportion of nursing and care home residents, but are there any surveys of where else someone has caught i?. I guess that "track & test" may help here.

[Robin Summerhill]

As regards walking I have taken the view that it all depends where you go, or indeed can go.

I am fortunate in that the edge of town is less than 5 minutes walk for me with only 3 houses to pass on the way, so I feel fairly safe in going that way. I might only pass 4 or 5 people on a 4 mile walk.

It might be very different if, at the other extreme, one live in a heavily built-up area where a lot more people are likely to be around most of the time.

Of course, there is only one way to ind out if I am right or wrong in taking that approach and I think I would prefer not to find out that I was wrong, because there is only one true way to do it...

As regards the track and trace policy, at the moment I remain to be convimced that it will work properly. News on the trial on the Isle of Wight has certainly not reached my ears recently, and I am concerned about both the centralised nature of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) scheme and its heavy reliance on IT. Experience has shown that central government and new IT systems have rarely made good bedfellows in the past.

Talking of the past, chasing down epedemics/ pandemics is nothing new. Throughput the 20th century, and possibly going back beforehand in some parts of the country, local Medical Officers of Health were doing this all the time with diseases that they had to deal with regularly such as diptheria, cholera, smallpox, TB etc. That they sometimes didn't jnow what to do about it when they had chased it down was due to a shortage of medical knowledge that they had at the time and that has now generally been corrected. So that is a positive.

Running down such local facilities "because we didn't need them any more" can be encapsulated by the old adage: "The lesson we learn from history is that we don't learn lessons from history"

[TaplowGreen]

One thing that is going to be absolutely vital to getting people back moving on the trains when the world returns to something like normality is a robust and reliable service - "staycations" are likely to be the order of the day this year, so it's an opportunity for the railways and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in particular given its services to the Westcountry.

In this context, what progress has been made in resolving the ridiculous situation which has made long distance summer Sunday services almost non viable over the last few years due to drivers being able to opt out of Sunday working, or do we face another summer of mass weekend cancellations and people choosing to rely on their cars instead?

Hopefully one of the well informed members of the forum can advise.

[IndustryInsider]

No progress.

However, the quite high percentage of drivers who like to earn extra money by working extra days have seen that opportunity dry up almost completely due to the emergency timetable, so I would expect fewer Sunday’s to be ‘given up’ and more volunteers making themselves available.  We’ll see what effect on availability that has.

[GBM]

Being 70+ with a compromised immune system means a house lockdown.  Fortunately have a large garden to walk around.  Meet and greet (at a distance) for the Thursday clap with neighbours.
Furballed until the end of June by the NHS and employer.

Was looking forward to the IoW NHS tracing app coming to the mainland, but feel the mainland 'trace and track' is wide open to scammers, so a massive distrust of that.
At least with an app - it's just another app that reads your mind.  We give our soul to Google/faceache/Microbug, etc, etc, so what's different with the IoW app privacy-wise.
At least with that it's unlikely we'd be rung up by an NHS advisor telling me I'd been in close contact and for the sum of £x to cover admin costs they'll sort my life out I tell them my 5 best email and telephone contact details.............