FACE COVERING LEGISLATION COULD HAVE A MAJOR IMPACT ON CHARTER INDUSTRY
STOP PRESS: new Covid law leaves dining trains uncertain.
Has government just decreed no dining trains for a year? As of June 17 that seemed likely… but nobody knows the answer.
On June 15, ‘Statutory Instrument 2020 No. 592’ became law. You must now wear a face covering on public transport in England.
As you’d expect, we have sought clarification – and the Department for Transport has confirmed that the new law does cover both heritage lines and charters.
However, as we closed for press it was still unclear what it meant for diners. The law does give “reasonable excuse” for not wearing a mask. One is “if it is reasonably necessary” for a passenger “to eat or drink”. But… is it ‘reasonably necessary’ to run a dining train?
Right at this minute, all this is moot. Until or unless the restrictions on leisure activities are eased, charters and preserved lines aren’t running. But the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has confirmed its aim that heritage businesses will open up from July 4 – while the face-covering law lasts for 12 months, with a review after six. It seems likely that restaurants may open… but dining trains could be de facto off-limits.
That’s despite promoters planning and working to enable social distancing – empty seats, partitions and so on – for when the leisure sector does open up; to say people have been surprised is probably underplaying it.
Could they not have expected it? Well, consider this: under coronavirus emergency rules, this has been pushed through quickly – made up on June 14 and becoming law the next day. There has been “no public consultation” – and given the “urgency”, the law was enacted “without a draft having been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each house of Parliament.”
Those are the Government’s own words. All this was just happening as SR went to press, and although our ring round struggled to find people, we did manage to find Steam Dreams’ David Buck.
“Clearly this is a hasty bit of legislation and I strongly feel that we should not be classified as public transport,” he said on June 17.
“I would very much hope and expect that an exemption will be granted.”
We also tracked down Kelly Osbourne from the Railway Touring Company who concluded: “It’s taken us by surprise. It’s complex, but we’re looking into it.”
One other thing worth reinforcing. This applies only to England. Elsewhere, face coverings are only recommended. So any plans for the ‘Jacobite’ or the A1 Trust’s ‘Aberdonian’ are unaffected, no matter what. South of the border, though, the issue could be crucial in terms of just what happens next: few charters run without dining being part of the make-up. While coverings might just be an inconvenience for a trip to a steam line, how do you sup soup through a scarf?
One sad aspect – but which offers hope to those looking for resolution: it seems likely that steam trains are not the intended target, but collateral damage. That this is, in fact, simply an oversight.
The explanatory background to the new law is peppered with comments like public transport being “vital to a safe relaxation of restrictions”, that “social distancing is likely to be increasingly difficult to manage at all times on public transport as restrictions are relaxed” and that “face coverings would offer some benefit in crowded transport environments, such as the London Underground”.
Does that sound like a 40% empty, seatsallocated, partition-fitted charter to you? Or consider another side: how else do you explain the specific exemption for cruise ships?
There has been broad support and broad science behind ‘lockdown’ – something this magazine has always acknowledged. And there is still legitimate debate on how far we should relax now. But once things do open up, how would you justify being able to eat in a restaurant or pub, but not in a Pullman…?