The majority of Londoners today appeared to be complying with new rules requiring face masks to be worn on public transport.
Transport for London said early indications were that 80 to 90 per cent of people on the Tube this morning were wearing face coverings. At Vauxhall station, the Evening Standard found that commuters were overwhelmingly abiding by the mandatory requirement to wear a non-medical mask.
Hundreds of police and station staff were on duty to reinforce the message — but a “light touch” approach was being taken until the rules became widely understood. TfL staff were handing out free masks.
Police have the power to impose £100 fines or ban people without a mask from travelling. At Vauxhall, there was a steady flow of rush-hour passengers but numbers were well down on pre-coronavirus levels.
Ekem Tongogara, 56, a manager at Allied Healthcare, said: “I have been wearing a mask on transport for three months. Two of the spouses of our staff have died from coronavirus, which is heartbreaking. Wearing a mask is so important.”
Mark Brookes, 48, who works for the justice system, had travelled to work from Buckinghamshire. He said: “Everyone on my trains this morning was wearing a face covering… People are sticking to the rules from what I can see.”
TfL distributed about 30,000 masks last week and more than a million are available. It said enforcement would only start once it was confident everybody understood the rules.
It said: “This is expected to be a last resort as Londoners will want to do the right thing.”
People with certain health conditions, disabled people and children under the age of 11 are not required to wear a mask.
