TfL Want Builders To Either Walk Or Cycle To Sites And Not Use The Tube. But, Why Haven’t London’s Builders Sites Been Closed Down, Surely They Are Not Essential Business ?

Transport for London has issued guidance for the building industry about reducing the number of workers using the Tube network to get to sites in the capital.

It says building firms should encourage workers to walk or cycle to the site, to stagger opening times and liaise with neighbouring jobs about when they start in order to cut congestion at hotspot stations.

Ministers were alarmed by images earlier this month showing packed stations and carriages during lockdown, prompting Construction Leadership Council co-chair Andy Mitchell to send out an email warning firms of the “very real risk” of them imposing restrictions if the situation did not improve.

But why have building companies been given the go a head to carry on regardless, surely building sites are not essential businesses?

Earlier this week, Transport for London (TfL) said the message the industry was given to cut overcrowding was only slowly getting through.

The message should have been simple....close all sites until the end of lockdown.

“The number of passengers [last week] will be very similar to what we experienced in the prior week, so we haven’t seen much change in terms of pure numbers,” a spokesperson told Building. “Despite that, we have seen slightly less crowding.”

TfL said it had produced specific advice for sites in areas of concentrated construction activity. These include Vauxhall Nine Elms, Westminster, the City, Canary Wharf and Stratford. All areas where TfL have a financial interest.....are these the contacts that have been handed out without going out to tender???

 

An emergency summit on the issue was held two weeks ago, the day after Mitchell’s message, with representatives from TfL and the business department joining 40 chief executives of London’s biggest contractors to work out how to cut the numbers using the network.

Ministers have made it clear they want construction to keep working but contractors have been warned they will not tolerate scenes of packed tube stations and carriages. 

So it’s just another case of one rule for the money men, and another rule for the plebs.