Keeping trains and stations clean

Keeping trains and stations clean and safe

Greater Anglia’s Martin Moran on the £600,000 investment to keep the railways clean

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a new emphasis on hygiene, as the government repeatedly urges us all to wash and sanitise our hands to prevent the spread of the virus.

Nowadays, whenever you go into a shop, pub, or restaurant, you are invited to sanitise your hands as you enter and leave. Greater Anglia, in common with the rest of the rail industry, is playing its part in contributing to good public hygiene, by keeping trains and stations cleaned and sanitised and enabling customers to wash and sanitise their hands.

We’re doing everything we possibly can to keep our trains as clean and hygienic as possible

“Stepping up cleaning and sanitisation of trains and stations – and letting the public see for themselves that we’re doing it – is important as it gives customers confidence to travel with us. It reassures them that it’s safe to use the railway,” says Martin Moran, Greater Anglia Commercial, Customer Service and Train Presentation Director.

Weekly public transport surveys by watchdog Transport Focus show how important cleanliness and hygiene is to customers when making decisions about how to travel. This is particularly important as the second lockdown in England comes to an end and more people start using public transport.

£600,000 investment “At Greater Anglia, we are confident that our trains are clean – and we know this because we have invested £600,000 in new equipment and additional people devoted to the cleanliness and hygiene of our trains,” said Martin.

The company has an arsenal of powerful cleaning equipment – including five 3M hygiene monitoring units, which are used weekly to quickly detect biological residue on high-touch areas on board trains. A swab is taken from the area being tested, which is checked for Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), an indicator of biological residues. The swab sample reacts with a labmanufactured enzyme – replicating that found in fireflies called luciferase – in a self-contained device. The energy from this reaction creates light. The more light detected, the greater the amount of biological residue on the surface tested.

Effective cleaning regimes Test results are then synchronised with one of Greater Anglia’s servers, so that train cleaning managers can get a picture of the efficiency and effectiveness of cleaning regimes across the whole of the network, enabling the company to provide optimal conditions for the sanitisation of trains.

Since March, Greater Anglia has stepped up cleaning of high touch areas such as push buttons, grab handles, door handles, arm rests and tables. It is these areas which are swabbed routinely to check this cleaning is working.

When cleaning is effective, then sanitisation measures, such as “fogging” with an anti-viral mist, work best. Greater Anglia now has seven fogging guns, used to 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.

Every single carriage on all of Greater Anglia’s trains had been fogged by the beginning of September, and the company is now doing them again. Fogging guns are also being used by Greater Anglia’s cleaning contractors to sanitise waiting rooms, toilets and other areas at stations. The company has also invested in other new equipment, extra cleaning routines and new and additional detergents. This new arsenal includes eight powerful Pacvac backpack vacuum cleaners, fitted with four filters which

clean the air as well as the floor and upholstery – especially useful for “turnaround cleaning” of trains at stations, between arriving on one service and departing again on the next one. The new vacuum cleaners are light and manoeuvrable, making it easier for train cleaners to do a thorough job.

Martin adds: “We’re doing everything we possibly can to keep our trains as clean and hygienic as possible. Our testing equipment enables us to check that our cleaning is as effective as possible, so that our customers can travel with us, confident that they are being kept safe. Our cleaning teams have been doing a great job and have really stepped up to the mark to keep everyone safe.

“Other staff, including our catering and station teams, have also stepped in to carry out additional cleaning on high-touch areas such as ticket barriers and ticket machine touch screens.”

Keeping COVID-safe Greater Anglia has also made it easier for customers to wash and sanitise their hands. From March, staff have been working hard to keep water and soap topped up in toilets on trains and at stations. In addition, the company has provided hand sanitiser at all staffed stations, with money raised for charity for each litre of hand sanitiser used.

While some of these extra cleaning and sanitisation measures take place at stations during “turnaround” cleaning, some of it is happening at night in depots and sidings, but the public have been able to see for themselves all the new steps Greater Anglia is taking through videos, photos and news articles posted on the company’s social media and in the local media. “We want our customers to feel confident, so through videos and photos they’re able to see for themselves what we’re doing to keep them safe,” said Martin.

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