From May 16th services along the Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink lines are to increase to a thousand a week as lockdown restrictions continue to ease under Government's roadmap out of lockdown.
Passengers however must continue maintain social distancing and wear face coverings unless exempt. Additional trains will look to provide more space and capacity along the busier routes and popular times. They will also provide more journey choices as a result for passengers at less busy times.
Steve White, Chief Operating Officer of parent operator Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) said: “As lockdown restrictions are eased, we are reinstating services for our returning customers”
“Social distancing will become more challenging as more people start to travel again, so we’d advise everyone to use online journey planners which will highlight the busiest services to help you plan an alternative time or route if you can."
"We will continue to review and increase our services based on feedback from our passengers, hospitals, vaccination centres, schools and businesses. This will ensure that we continue to support our customers and our communities as we did during the height of the pandemic.”
A GTR spokesperson said: "Our modern trains have air conditioning which replaces the fresh air in each carriage every 6-9 minutes"
"Weekly Covid safety checks are carried out across trains and stations, looking at cleaning, passenger information, social distancing and the wearing of face coverings."
"GTR sanitises all 2,700 of its carriages every night and uses a long-lasting viricide across stations and trains which kills coronavirus for weeks at a time."
"Independent laboratory results show that Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern trains are testing negative for Covid-19."
"Over 1,000 touch-free hand sanitisers have been installed at stations since the start of the pandemic."
