Social distancing scrapped on all LNER trains running between Scotland and England
LNER #LNER
Social distancing has been scrapped on all LNER trains running between Scotland and England, despite there being different rules on either side of the border.
The train company said it would be operating its services under “English guidance”, which means that from Monday passengers could be seated next to each other.
A spokesman later confirmed this applied to all of its cross-border services, regardless of whether they originated in Scotland or England.
The decision was made despite the rules in Scotland being different, with 1m social distancing still in place in all indoor public spaces including public transport.
LNER is also asking customers to continue to wear face coverings on its trains, despite this only being a legal requirement in Scotland and not in England.
The social distancing policy was attacked by Michael Matheson, Scotland’s transport secretary, who described it as “unacceptable”.
“LNER services operating in Scotland should comply with the Scottish Government public health guidance,” he said.
“I’ve asked Transport Scotland officials to address this point with LNER.”
Angus Robertson, Scotland’s constitution secretary and another member of Nicola Sturgeon’s Cabinet, also criticised the decision.
“LNER is a train company owned by the UK Government,” he said.
“Is it still maintaining that when it operates in Scotland it is going to disregard Scottish public health and safety coronavirus rules?
“This is as tenable as Boris Johnson’s exemption from social distancing regulations.”
SNP MP John Nicolson also criticised the company’s policy, describing it as “not acceptable”.
“When you are in Scotland your duty is to follow Scottish Government guidelines,” he said. “You can’t pick and choose which rules and recommendations you follow.”
Twitter user Tamsin Russell said she was “completely confused and dumfounded” by LNER’s policy on the issue and challenged the company to justify it.
Responding to her Tweet, LNER said: “We have made the decision to operate under English guidance, with regards to social distancing on cross border services, to provide consistency to customers. Therefore, customers may be seated next to each other when travelling from 19 July onwards.”
An LNER spokesman added later: “Whilst social distancing guidance remains in place in Scotland, we have taken the decision to operate the same seating/reservation approach on all our services, including our cross-border services, to ensure a consistent experience for customers.”
The spokesman said most seats on LNER services would still require reservations, to give passengers “confidence that trains will not be overcrowded”.
“To protect the flexibility of the walk-up railway, there will be a number of unreserved seats in Coach C for Standard and a number of seats in Coach M in First Class, or Coach E in First Class in a five-coach train,” he said.
“Customers without a reservation will be able to travel in these unreserved areas of the train. To ensure customers can travel with confidence, LNER is continuing to deliver record levels of enhanced cleaning onboard its trains and in stations.”
Scotland had entered level zero restrictions as of Monday, while England has dropped social distancing requirements and removed the requirement for face masks to be mandatory.
The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.