As the government develops plans to help the country prepare for an easing of the current lockdown Rail Forum Midlands has provided the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) with a high level summary of some of the key challenges the industry faces in ‘getting back to work’.
The Challenges of Social Distancing for Rail
Whilst many organisations have continued to operate during the pandemic providing essential transport services to key workers others have found it more difficult. Some have closed temporarily, others have adopted new working arrangements. Whilst these new arrangements might be fine for a short period they may, in some cases, reduce productivity to a point that their ongoing adoption would not be viable.
RFM has identified some key high-level asks of government – none of which are rail specific and we recognise that other industries are facing the same complex challenges that we are wrestling with.
We understand government is planning to issue sector specific guides on precautions to be taken in the workplace. We will be reviewing these carefully and seeking members’ views to feedback as appropriate. The timescales for this work is incredibly tight and we expect guidance to be issued in the coming days.
