Mayor sends out plea after seeing images of packed platform
‘STAY AT HOME IF YOUR JOURNEY IS NOT ESSENTIAL’
THE Mayor of London has begged Londoners stay at home after worrying images emerged of a packed Tube platform.
On Wednesday April 1, Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan showed the Mayor scenes of passengers flouting the two-metre social distancing rule at North Acton station yesterday.
Sadiq Khan said: “Frankly speaking there are still too many people not staying at home. What they need to be doing is staying at home.
“My message to them is if you really, really have to work please avoid the rush hour.”
He went on to tell viewers: “Please, please, please stay at home.”
The Mayor blamed the shocking scenes on the service being consolidated to provide a Central London interchange at West Ruislip Station on staff absences.
He explained that around a third of TfL staff are self-isolating or are sick with Covid-19 themselves, meaning a fuller service is not possible.
He added: “The good news is that some of those drivers have come back to work so the Central line trains should be running into West Ruislip.”
Use of Tube and rail services overall has reduced by 92%, London’s Transport Commissioner confirmed last week.
However, busy rush hour trains, on which social distancing is difficult, remain a problem for Transport for London.
The Mayor expressed concern that many younger people are under the impression they will have no consequences from catching the virus.
He gave his sympathies to the family of a 13-year-old with no apparent underlying health conditions who died at King’s College Hospital, Camberwell, last week.
He said: “This is one of the reasons I’ve been quite firm for some time is to get across that this advice isn’t optional. These rules are there for a very good reason.”