How To Deliver On Your Safer Travel Pledge To Rail Customers

The rail industry’s Safer Travel Pledge guidelines were introduced in July 2020 when the government started easing lockdown restrictions – and with Lockdown 2.0 restrictions soon to be lifted, the scrutiny that the rail industry is under will only increase.

With the stakes for customer safety higher than they’ve been since World War II, there’s intense pressure on you to deliver the promises under the pledge.

In this post, we’re going to guide you through the problems you’re already facing: the biggest obstacle to your network’s Safer Travel Pledge, and the lack of time you have in choosing the right solutions to your problems in such a fast-paced industry.

We’re going to show you how to solve those problems quickly.

Safer Travel Pledge challenges

You’re already familiar with the Safer Travel Pledge, of course, but let’s home in some of the responsibilities that fall under your remit:

• New signage to maintain social distancing between passengers
• Supply of extra hand sanitiser points
• Hand soap re-stocked more frequently in stations

With more customers using your services post-Q1 2021, the more logistically challenging the Safer Travel Pledge is becoming. The steady rise in passenger numbers in Q2 and Q3 highlights just how crucial a safe system of working will be. The Office of Rail and Road reports that:

‘Estimates published by the Department for Transport (DfT) indicate that relative passenger usage increased from around 5% at the start of April to 17% by the end of June. Usage continued to increase after 2020-21 Q1 with as much as 43% of 2019-20 levels being recorded in September.’

Increased footfall in rail stations increases the risk of Covid-19 infection on your premises, which makes Safer Travel Pledge guidelines paramount to the health and safety of your customers and staff.

Knowing what the guidelines are, how do you best prepare to deliver on the pledge?

Queue management systems to keep your train station safe

You want your customers and staff to stay safe. To ease anxiety for both parties, the most important solution available is effective queue management.

An effective queue management strategy will help you to:

• Mark the social distances that customers are recommended to stand apart to reduce the risk of infection.
• Organise queues in areas outside your environment or in new areas within stores.
• Help queues move quicker so that customers aren’t waiting any longer than the recommended 15-minute maximum.
• Provide signage and guidance on ‘keeping a safe distance’.

In the coming months, consistent compliance with the Safer Travel Pledge will enhance your reputation and restore confidence in passengers. We’ve got the knowledge and expertise to make compliance easy – let’s dive into a few examples.

To see Tensator’s full range of railway queuing and safety solutions – download the brochure below.

Queue management barriers

Here at Tensator, we’re famous for our Tensabarrier solution – the world’s best-in-class queue management barrier – but it’s not the only solution we’re renowned for.

Custom barrier webbing

Using barriers with custom webbing is a high-impact tool for organising queues and ensuring your customers maintain a safe distance from each other.

Separation panelling

Separation panelling – indoor transparent separation panelling serve as barriers, sneeze guards and offer visible cues to customers for following correct queue-flow directions.

Social distancing seat straps

Clearly mark out-of-service seating and feature high-visibility messaging on the webbing.

Convenient hand sanitisation

Hand sanitiser stations built into your queue-flow are a perfect idea for strategically satisfying hand sanitisation requirements in the Safer Travel Pledge. Retro-fitted hand sanitiser dispensers that attach to the top of your queuing barriers, for your on-the-move customers, will significantly reduce the risk of them bottlenecking designated sanitising areas.

Ultra-clear signage

From small and large format signage to floor stickers, don’t underestimate the massive difference that quality wayfinding signage will make to your customer experience. Clear messaging enables your customers to navigate your premises with confidence – if they lose their way, your queuing system space planning breaks down. To learn more about our wayfinding solutions, click here.

Consultative space planning

Tensator has an expert in-house design team who will address your space-planning pain points with bespoke solutions.

Choosing the right products is one key decision you need to take – the other is where to place them and how to arrange them.

We collaborate with you to tailor a queue management plan that meets your exact specs – so you know precisely how to maximise your space for both safety and queue-flow efficiency.

But why choose Tensator to help you with your Safer Travel Pledge commitments?

There’s great comfort in convenience.

Your customers get to experience this all the time – they step onto your train and they’re whisked to their destination at twice the speed their car can achieve. Instead of sets of red traffic lights, lane-switching cyclists and blaring horns, they get to enjoy coffee, an audiobook and a headstart on their emails to ease their Monday morning anxiety.

The same comforting feeling awaits you if you work with a consultative solutions provider like Tensator.

We know you’re under pressure, and you’re busy doing what you do best – keeping the country moving, no matter how challenging the circumstances.

And if you want to get the country moving faster and more efficiently when the pandemic is slowing things down, we’re here to offer our expert guidance and find the solutions to your Safer Travel Pledge problems.

We’ve got quite a track record in helping companies in other industries soothe their headaches.

How we helped Euston Station with their Safer Travel Pledge commitments

We helped Euston to implement a one-way queuing system to ensure they were adhering to social distancing guidelines, whilst maintaining efficiency. The one-way system was designed to be flexible and adapt to different times of the day. To do this, within the queues we designed bespoke gates that allow Euston to open different paths to maximise passenger flow.

Joe Hendry, station manager at Euston Station recorded an impressive walkthrough video, showing all of the safety measures they have implemented to ensure they are meeting the Safer Travel Pledge. Within this you can see a snapshot of the one way system in place. Check out the video below.

Helping Stratford Station to implement a one-way system

We also helped Stratford Station to implement a one-way system that helped social distancing, but also design and manufactured bespoke sliding gates that allowed them to change passenger flow and allow access if necessary.

Get in touch

The rail industry is fast-paced and relentless – which is part of the reason why you love it – but the Safer Travel Pledge provides an extra layer of safety and efficiency requirements.

Here at Tensator, we’re the world leaders in crowd control solutions – we’ve been in the business for over 130 years.

Get in touch with us for a quick discussion about what’s slowing your operation down – we know the answers to your problems.

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