Covid 19 coronavirus: public safety changes on Wellington's trains and buses

Penny Gaylor.

Various safety measures have been introduced on Wellington's train and bus services, writes Kapiti's Greater Wellington Regional Council representative Penny Gaylor.

While the majority of us are home in isolation, there are some who are in essential work and they are still able to use the public transport services to get to work.

The services are operating on a Sunday timetable and its free.

In response to Covid-19 alert level 4, Metlink is adding more bus services, introducing germ shield fogging and rolling out physical distancing markers on all buses and trains to tailor to the needs of those essential services workers to help them to to and back from their workplaces. For example if they are doing shift work.

Metlink want all passengers to continue to provide feedback on the service during this time.

They can phone, email, use our website or social media channels to let us know what's working and what needs to be tweaked.

NeedToKnow3

We're aware that many passengers want to know if Metlink will refund the April rail passes issued before public transport went free.

The answer is yes, but please bear with Metlink while they work out the easiest way to do that while we are in lockdown.

Metlink has also rolled out germ shield fogging across all of its trains, stations and buses.

Bus germ fogging.

The antibacterial spray coating is effective in destroying germs that come into contact with surfaces and has been used for MRSA, Norovirus and H1N1 type viruses.

The fogging is another measure that we're putting in place on top of very robust cleaning measures.

We're encouraging passengers to continue to follow Ministry of Health advice and stay at home if sick, keep up their personal hygiene efforts and maintain physical distancing of two metres.

To help passengers keep a two metre distance, Metlink has put markers on floors and seats, as well as stickers on the back of seats and on windows to show where passengers should sit.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website