Europe wrestles with how to make public transport safe

the hague — In cities around the world, public transit systems are key to getting workers back on the job and restarting devastated economies, yet everything from trains and buses to ferries and bicycles will have to be reimagined in the coronavirus era.

In Europe in particular, public transportation is shaping up as a new front line in the battle to tame the outbreak that has killed over 120,000 of its citizens.

In hard-hit Italy, Spain, France and Britain, standing cheek-to-jowl with fellow commuters in packed trains or trams was as much a part of the morning routine in pre-coronavirus times as a steaming shot of espresso or a crispy croissant.

That’s going to have to change as authorities try to restart their economies without losing their hard-won gains in controlling the spread of the virus.

Solutions include putting red stickers on the floor to tell bus passengers in Milan how far apart to stand. The Dutch are putting on longer, roomier trains, and many cities, including Berlin, are opening up more lanes to cyclists. In Britain, bus passengers are entering through the middle or rear doors to reduce the risk to the driver.

Announcing a gradual easing of France’s strict lockdown, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe called public transit a “key measure for the economic recovery” yet acknowledged concerns among passengers.

“I understand the apprehension of a good number of our compatriots before taking a metro, a train, a bus, a tram, which are sometimes very densely packed,” he said.

When and how to ease restrictions, keep people safe and prevent a second wave of infections is a matter of intense debate around the world.

“There will never be a perfect amount of protection,” said Josh Santarpia, a microbiology expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who is studying the coronavirus. “It’s a personal risk assessment. Everybody has to decide, person by person, what risk they’re willing to tolerate.”

As restrictions loosen, health authorities will be watching closely for any sign of a resurgence of the virus. Germany has reported an slight uptick in the infection rate since some small businesses were allowed to reopen over a week ago, but authorities said it was too soon to say whether the loosening was to blame.

The US on Wednesday learned just how hard the crisis has hammered the world’s biggest economy as the Commerce Department estimated that the gross domestic product, the broadest gauge of the economy, shrank at an annual rate of 4.8 per cent in the January-March quarter. That was the sharpest quarterly drop since the Great Recession in 2008-09.

The United Nations’ main labour body raised its prediction of full-timeequivalent job losses in the second quarter to an estimated 305 million.

It also projected that 1.6 billion workers in the “informal economy,” including those working without proper contracts or oversight by government regulation, “stand in immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed.” That is nearly half the global workforce of 3.3 billion people. —

It’s a personal risk assessment. Everybody has to decide, person by person, what risk they’re willing to tolerate

Josh Santarpia

microbiology expert