Sadiq Khan has confirmed that he has been in talks with the government over the possibility of making it a criminal offence to not wear your mask on Transport for London (TfL) services.
Due to the government ending certain coronavirus regulations on July 19, wearing a face covering on TfL services is now a ‘condition of carriage’.
This means it is part of the contract you enter with TfL when you tap your card on a ticket barrier or purchase a paper ticket from TfL.
If you don’t wear a face covering, you effectively break the contract and can be fined or pursued civilly by TfL (just like a telephone company if you’re out of contract), not the police.
In an interview with BBC Newscast, the Mayor of London said: “We are trying to lobby the Government to allow us to bring in a bye-law, so it will be the law again, so we can issue fixed penalty notices and we can use the police service and BTP [ British Transport Police ] to enforce this.”
The move would mean that British Transport Police officers would have the legal powers to arrest people who do not wear face coverings on the TfL network when they aren’t medically exempt.
Transport workers themselves have always been exempted from the rules, even when they were the law, due to the unique nature of their work.
The Mayor, who is in charge of transport in London, is desperate to get Londoners back onto the city’s buses, trains and Tube networks. Usage on these three modes of transport has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels (currently hovering between 45 and 60 per cent) unlike car usage which has.
If this continues, TfL will not be able to make the £300million in extra savings or revenue it needs to under the terms of June’s government bailout.
As a recent Transport Focus poll showed that 56 per cent of Londoners wanted masks to be obligatory on London Underground, the Mayor is hoping that keeping rules on face coverings as strict as possible, more Londoners will feel confident enough to use buses, trains and the Tube again.
The recently re-elected Mayor continued: “We need people to be coming back to the West End. We want to encourage people to return to their offices […] they are not going to do so if they don’t feel public transport is safe.”
Mr Khan recently launched the biggest TfL advertising campaign since the 2012 Olympic Games with the hashtag #LetsDoLondon.
The slogan “Bus it. Train it. Tube it.” has been appearing in adverts across ITV and Channel 4 plus posters, billboards and screens all over the city. It’s an urgent appeal to Londoners to get back exploring the city and bring up passenger numbers and all important fare revenues.