Transport for NSW has increased its cleaning schedule and ramped up public hygiene messaging across its network in an effort to ensure the safety of staff and travellers during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Secretary of Transport for NSW, Rodd Staples said the Agency was committed to maintaining vital services to support customers and staff, including essential health and emergency services.
“It is clearly not business as usual at the moment but we know our network remains a critical part in keeping essential services running,” Mr Staples said.
“A key part of our role is ensuring goods and services are able to get to where they are needed most, including supermarkets,” he said.
“The team is continuing to work closely with the freight industry to ensure we don’t see any barriers emerge in critical supply chains, across roads, ports and rail.”
Mr Staples said that in the past two weeks, NSW had seen shifts in travel patterns across all modes of transport and a State-wide decline in public transport use of around 40 per cent.
He said additional measures had been implemented to ensure the safety of customers and staff travelling on the network across long distances, particularly regionally.
“This week NSW TrainLink regional rail and coach customers will be booked in a way to maximise social-distancing where possible,” he said.
He said Transport for NSW had also deferred the need for medical reviews of drivers aged over 75 to ease the burden on the health system and protect vulnerable people.
“We know the elderly are highly affected by this virus and we want to get ahead of the game to ensure they are not making unnecessary trips where they could potentially be exposed to the virus,” Mr Staples said.
