The COVID-19 crisis has shown how essential public transportation is to guarantee access and continuity of basic services in our communities. During the lockdown, all over the world, public transit services were maintained to ensuring the mobility of essential front-line workers.
Despite the lack of scientific evidence, many governments with the support of the media, have called for people to avoid using public transit and to seek other modes of transportation including by car, bike or walk. This has had a tremendous impact on people´s behavior and the public perception of feeling at risk in public spaces, including in public transportation.
According to a recent Policy Brief from the UITP (the International Association of Public Transport) there is enough evidence to demonstrate that, when measures recommended by the health authorities are implemented, the risk of catching COVID-19 in public transportation is very low.
Transdev Group as many other public transit operators and authorities and have been addressing the issue very seriously by: adapting the service supply; scaling and reinforcing cleaning and disinfection procedures; supplying protective equipment to staff and to passengers; ensuring staff and passengers comply with national and local health regulations; increasing the level of natural ventilation and air renewal onboard vehicles; and much more to regain customers’ trust in public transit.
Transdev Germany together with Alstom, the manufacturer of Transdev’s new trains at Bayerische Regiobahn GmbH (BRB) in Bavaria, developed a short descriptive animation illustrating how fresh air is flowing through the vehicle and thus is constantly exchanging. The short video is intended to further promote the trust of passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic to use BRB trains and to convince them to get back on board as soon as possible.
Because all the statistics come to the same conclusion: It’s safe to use public transportation!