Person testing swabs

Greater Anglia trains test negative for Covid-19

Greater Anglia have been working alongside a provider of testing, inspection and compliance service to test for Covid-19 on its trains, and every test has come back negative.

40 ‘biological assessments’ have been carried across a randomly selected number of trains departing or arriving from Liverpool Street. The areas that were swabbed were high-touch-points such as push buttons, tables, toilet doors, toilet flush buttons, grab handles and the inside of driver cabs.

The operator carried out the Covid-19 tests to check the effectiveness of their new cleaning and sanitising regimes.

The company has invested £600,000 in new cleaning equipment and extra staff in order to keep trains clean and sterile, as part of reinstating customer confidence and making them feel safe when travelling on the railways.

Train cleaning managers have recently started using hygiene monitoring units to detect biological residue on high touch areas on board trains.

These tests give managers a picture of the efficiency and effectiveness of cleaning regimes across the whole of the network and enable optimal conditions for the sanitisation of trains.

Cleaners and other Greater Anglia staff, such as ticket office and gate line staff, have stepped up cleaning of high-touch areas such as push buttons, grab handles, door handles and ticket machine screens with viricides.

The company has also bought seven fogging guns, which spray a fine targeted mist of anti-viral disinfectant which quickly kills off bacteria and viruses in the air, on floors, furniture, walls, ceilings, other surfaces and large internal areas on board its trains.

Every single carriage has been fogged at least once. Greater Anglia’s cleaning contractors are also using fogging guns to sanitise waiting rooms, toilets and other areas at stations.

Other new cleaning equipment includes eight Pacvac backpack vacuum cleaners, with four filters, which clean the air as well as the floor and upholstery. The company has also recruited 28 more people to its team of over 300 train cleaners.

Martin Moran, Greater Anglia commercial, customer service and train presentation director, said: “We are using everything available to make sure that our trains are clean and sanitised. The tests enable us to triple check the effectiveness of our new cleaning and sanitising regimes.

“We already carry out weekly tests for biological residue to make sure trains are clean so that we can be sure that we have the right conditions for sanitising our trains. It’s excellent that all tests have come back negative, but we’re not complacent, and we will continue to keep our trains as hygienic as possible so that our customers can travel with confidence.”

Images: Greater Anglia 

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