PACKED IN
London commuters pack onto early morning Tube with NO social distancing as capital records highest Covid rate in England
LONDON commuters were this morning packed onto early morning Tubes with NO social distancing as the capital recorded the highest Covid rate in England.
Brits were seen piling into carriages at Canning Town station this morning - for the second day in a row - in exclusive footage taken by the Sun Online.
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Footage shows the crowds pouring into carriages this morning, despite the government guidance stating everyone should stay local and work from home where possible.
It comes the day after a "terrifying" clip showed the same huge crowds again at Canning Town on Thursday.
Transport for London had insisted the crowds had only formed because three Jubilee Line Tubes were cancelled, but the scenes were again mimicked this morning.
While the commuters wore masks for their 6am journeys, they were unable to socially distance due to the sheer numbers.
The worrying scenes come as London has been particularly hit by the deadly bug, with more than 10,000 lives claimed in the capital alone.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan last week declared a major incident in the capital as the virus runs rampant and the country was put into its third lockdown.
While the latest figures have shown London's Covid cases have started to drop, the capital has the highest rate of infection - currently standing at 864.9 per 100,000 people in the seven days to January 10, according to Public Health England’s latest weekly surveillance report.
Newham Council area, which includes Canning Town, has been hit hard with 1,398 cases per 100,000 people in the latest figures for the week of January 3 to January 9. The average area in England had 526 cases per 100,000.
But despite the worrying rise in cases, it has been revealed that around twice as many people are now using the London Underground and twice as many people using cars and buses compared to the first lockdown last year.
According to the latest stats, 4.9 million entries and exits were made on the Tube from Monday January 4 to Thursday January 7, more than 2m more than in the first four days of the initial lockdown in March, when the figure was 2.89m.
Similar scenes were seen during last year's first lockdown when employees had to squeeze onto busy trains.
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British Transport Police were this morning deployed to Canning Town and West Ham amid the crowded scenes, and thanked commuters for wearing masks.
Nick Dent, London Underground’s Director of Line Operations, said the Canning Town platforms had been "very occasionally busy" between 6am and 7am.
He said: "We are running a near-normal service which meant these could be safely cleared quickly. British Transport Police were also at the station to ensure that passenger and staff safety was maintained.
"Canning Town and West Ham are our busiest stations early in the morning and we are contacting large employers in the area to urge them to stagger shifts and operating hours to enable those who have to travel to work to travel in the quieter times."
He added: "We are doing everything we can to help ensure those who need to travel for legally permitted reasons are able to do so in a safe way and maintain social distancing, as well as targeted communications to encourage people to travel at quiet times.
"We urge passengers to travel between 08:15 and 16:00 and after 17:30 on weekdays, which are significantly quieter times on the network.”
'AVOID HOT SPOTS'
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was quizzed over the footage today, telling Good Morning Britain: "We don't want to see that kind of overcrowding."
But when pressed over what he would have done, he said: "I would encourage people not to get into crowded situations.
"It may not be possible for everyone... but I do encourage people if they know it's a hot spot to avoid it."
He added: "I'm very much hoping that those things won't have been repeated this morning."
But after footage of busy scenes at Canning Town were shared online yesterday, Brits hit out at the situation many had found themselves in during the lockdown.
One person wrote: "Terrifying, but absolutely not their fault. It’s their employers forcing them to still work.
"The majority are construction workers with heavy tools, working all over London doing hard physical work, so unrealistic to expect them to walk/cycle."
Another tweeted: "In order to keep society running we need some people to not WFH.
"There’s not a set of magical elves that deliver things, that work in distribution centres, that cook food, that make sure the internet works."
And a third said: "Almost a year into this and we’re still seeing the middle class shaming the working class for going into work instead of thinking about why they’re still having to do it."
Sixty London Transport worker have died with coronavirus, including 46 bus drivers.
Masks are compulsory on public transport in the capital with rule flouters facing a £200 fine.
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Almost 1,600 Fixed Penalty Notices have been handed to people caught without a mask.
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Another 9,200 people were prevented from boarding for not wearing masks and around 2,000 removed from trains, Tubes and buses for non-compliance.
Research from last November suggested one in four Brits weren't wearing masks on public transport.
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Londoners pack onto Tube at Canning Town station despite pleas to work from home as cases soar despite national lockdown
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