London TravelWatch wants RSSB to publish data that predicts potential deaths from Covid caught on trains, but safety body insists that ‘risk is low’

 

 

London TravelWatch is urging the rail industry to release its data on the risks of catching Covid on trains. The watchdog says it is “irresponsible” to launch a campaign urging people to return to rail travel without first informing them of the risks.

Attendees from an industry conference call on August 12 told The Telegraph that modelling by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) had found that the number of potential deaths from Covid caught on a train over the next four months “ranges from double to triple figures”. RSSB shares its findings with rail executives and the Department for Transport – but has not made the numbers public.

Responding on August 15 to the story published in The Telegraph, RSSB said: “This is a highly misleading – rail travel is actually safe, and the Covid risk is low.”

Our analysis does not provide a simple risk figure that would inform passengers

It added: “Our analysis does not provide a simple risk figure that would inform passengers – so pulling out one hypothetical scenario, without any understanding of the assumptions, context and likelihood, does not really help anyone.”

However, London TravelWatch is calling for greater transparency. Commenting on August 16, Emma Gibson, director of London’s official transport user watchdog, said: “[We] have repeatedly asked the rail industry to release their data on the risks of catching Covid on the train, so that passengers can make an informed choice about whether to travel. But they have refused to do so.

The rail industry’s ad campaign is irresponsible and they must now release the data that they have, in order to build back trust with passengers

“If a major supermarket were running an ad campaign encouraging us to stop shopping online and return to shopping in-store, but at the same time were sitting on statistics which showed the number of people who might die as a result, there would be a public outcry. The rail industry’s ad campaign is irresponsible and they must now release the data that they have, in order to build back trust with passengers.”

 
This article appears in the latest issue of Passenger Transport.

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