Commuters cram onto Tube with NO hope of social distancing after London records most Covid cases in England… as public transport fares will rise by 2.6%

• Passengers desperately mask-up to try and keep safe but not enough space meant they could not distance 
• Transport for London got £1.8billion bailout from the government to keep services running during lockdown
• Sadiq Khan claimed today terms of the money was that fares would rise across the board on the network 

Commuters in London packed onto tube trains this morning – hours before Sadiq Khan announced they would be hit by fare rises on them and trains and buses in March.

Masked-up passengers in London Bridge were desperately trying to stay safe but were unable to social distance due the sheer numbers riding the carriage.

It came just a day after they were forced to cram onto trains when three were cancelled in Canning Town, east London. 

Meanwhile Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London is lifting prices by 2.6 per cent in two months’ time.

He has laid the blame at the door of the Government, insisting it is their fault and demanded the rises on condition for its paramedic funding bailout.

But it is at odds with the Mayor’s efforts to get people back onto the transport network.

He bemoaned last year people working from home describing it as a ‘big problem’.

Passengers desperately mask-up to try and keep safe but not enough space meant they could not socially distance properly

Commuters at London Bridge Underground Station on the Jubilee Line this morning wait for a west bound train in rush hour

Transport for London got £1.8billion bailout from the government to keep services running during the coronavirus pandemic

Mr Khan said: ‘Londoners know that I have done everything possible to make public transport more affordable since I became Mayor – including introducing the unlimited Hopper bus fare and freezing all TfL fares since taking office – saving the average London household over £200.

‘Unfortunately this year Ministers insisted on a RPI+1 per cent fares increase in order for TfL to get the emergency Government support needed as a consequence of the global pandemic.

‘Public transport should be affordable to all, so I am pleased that I was able to fight off even worse Government proposals to scrap free travel for under 18’s and concessions for over 60’s as well as bigger fares increase.’

In November Government agreed to give TfL a £1.8billion bailout to keep services running until March this year.

Sadiq Khan claimed today terms of the government bail-out money was that fares would rise across the board on the network

The scenes came a day after they were forced to cram onto trains when three were cancelled in Canning Town, east London

Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London is lifting prices by 2.6 per cent in two months’ time, but he blames the government 

They requested the money to fill a financial chasm caused by the lack of passengers during the pandemic.

Yesterday scores of commuters crammed onto the Tube as three trains were cancelled after staff went off sick with Covid.

Footage was filmed at Canning Town station in east London, which is seen as a bottleneck due to the large number of builders and other key workers who live locally and depend on the Tube to travel to work in the city centre. 

TfL said two early trains had to be cancelled due to sickness and a third was as a result of technical issues, as a spokesman insisted the scenes were ‘not representative’ of the wider Tube service. 

Despite concerns over the current surge in the virus, work in the construction and manufacturing industries has continued during recent months in all four nations of the UK.

Today, rail worker and trade union activist has said they feel they and their colleagues working from London Underground stations currently are ‘unsafe’ and that the number of commuters is ‘worse now than it was the first time around’.

The worker, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: ‘If you’re on the Underground system… people are touching the seats, the handrails. The majority of people who are travelling are wearing masks, over their nose and mouth, but a train is not a big place on the Tube!

‘There’s too many people who shouldn’t be travelling, (who) are still travelling. Look at the roads, where’s everyone going? There’s traffic everywhere.’  

London has been the UK’s Covid hotpot with 540,000 cases since the start of March. However, within the last few days the number of hospital admissions has plateaued, while the latest daily cases suggest the infection rate is coming down. 

A total of 60 TfL staff have now tragically died of coronavirus, LBC reported today, while at the start of this week one in ten were off sick or self-isolating.     

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