Brighton bus services are stepping up on 1 June
From Monday 1 June there will be a very significant scale up in service, virtually doubling the total level of service from 40% to around 80%.
Martin Harris, Managing Director said “The bus network plays an essential part in the careful re-opening of society and of the economy and will support key workers, those beginning to return to school, and those who will increasingly be needing to get about to shop and in due course, to meet with family and friends once again.”
Whilst we still advise essential travel only, the new service levels have been set for each route following detailed analysis both of the levels of usage of each route during lockdown and taking account of the need to support current social distancing needs.
Full details of the new timetables are available on our website.
Safer Travel On Buses
New service levels are very much underpinned by our continuing commitment to make travel on our buses as safe as possible. With the extra capacity from twice as many buses out in service, social distancing limits will continue to be monitored and applied to every journey. The new lower capacity levels, which includes 24 on bendy buses and up to 30 on double-deckers will be clearly displayed on the side of our buses from 01 June.
Seating within two metres of the driver will continue to be unavailable as will rear facing seats, but the other seating can be used flexibly to enable people to distance according to the circumstances – families and people travelling together can of course legitimately sit together so the flexibility allows people to apply common sense to the distanced seating patterns. There are plenty of communications on our website and board the bus to help with this.
Martin said “Just as at the supermarket, our drivers are ‘at the door’ and will keep an eye on total capacity. If drivers need to put up the ‘full’ sign on the front of the bus, until space becomes available again, we will ask people to work with us and respect the advice of the driver. Such instances will be monitored and will inform further decisions on service provision.”
Cleaning regimes are being maintained at the highest standards, including higher frequency interior cleaning and additional on street cleaning that targets high touch point areas. Additional cleaning is also being completed by a team of drivers who are volunteering to work as cleaners. We are using hospital grade virucide in our cleaning products.
When to travel app-link on the way
To further help passengers plan their journeys in advance of travel, and so they can choose journeys which have lower loadings, we are working with sister companies on a new ‘when to travel’ app that will keep customers informed and help spread journeys beyond the busiest peak periods. This is about to be tested and we confidently expect to make it available to Brighton & Hove passengers very soon.
Protecting the safety of our colleagues
The health and welfare of our colleagues as well as our passengers is important. Throughout Covid-19 we have worked with Unite, the Union, to do everything possible to protect our colleagues at work. New risk assessments have been in place for a while now and we are a Covid-19 safe certified employer.
Martin said “PPE, safe practices, limiting of cash contact and intense cab cleaning and sealing have all contributed to keeping infection rates to almost zero in a workforce of over 1,500 people. We are determined to keep it that way.”