Good Afternoon,

I’m taking the opportunity to get in touch with all schools in our operating area to ask for your assistance in getting the message across to all pupils, of the importance for pupils to comply with the Scottish Government’s requirement for passengers travelling on public transport to wear a face covering.

We’ve had our street teams out across the network conducting spot checks in support of engaging with, explaining and encouraging passengers to wear a face covering while travelling on our buses that operate as part of the First Glasgow network.

Sadly, it’s been brought to my attention by the teams that a significant number of school pupils across the network are not complying with Scottish Government guidance. For example, during one such exercise, our teams have approached a number of pupils and asked where their face covering is and the pupil has then pulled it out of their bag and then complied with the request from our team to put it on. However, the moment the team switched decks, the pupils immediately removed their coverings again and the team had to re-engage and advise strongly that they must keep their coverings on.

The key problem here is not that pupils don’t know the rules about the wearing of face coverings on public transport – the fact that they have the coverings in their bags is proof of that itself. It’s the more concerning behaviour that they simply choose to flout the rules in this regard.

I cannot stress enough the health risk that this behaviour poses to our drivers, other passengers on board (including schoolchildren), and indeed, the wider population in terms of potential transmission of coronavirus. We now at the stage that if further breaches of the wearing of face coverings are identified, we will be reporting them to Police Scotland.

I’d therefore be extremely grateful if you could engage our messaging in the strongest possible terms with your pupils to help us keep everyone safe when travelling on our bus network. The key messaging is:

• Wear a face covering when boarding, travelling throughout, and alighting from the bus on every journey. Exemptions only apply to those that have a medical condition that makes the wearing of a covering difficult.

• Please only use seats that are not marked with our yellow seat sashes. If the seat has a sash, don’t use it. This helps to enforce physical distancing and keeps everyone at a safe space from each other.

• Try to wash your hands before and after you make any journey.

I hope that this information is helpful, and I look forward to your assistance in highlighting the importance of these requirements when travelling on our services. If there’s anything else we can assist you with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Your sincerely

Duncan Cameron
Operations Director

 

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