This is not gonna go well
is the rain doing ok?
terribly quality, sorry
morning! ah, it's so raining
i got a call ... last night, just got my
face covering out of my bag
a call last night, from GTR / Southern
inviting me down to Brighton this morning
on this lovely day!
so i should point out that i'm officially here
at their invite, i've come down
to go in the station, putting my face covering on
basically, they said
we've converted a train, a Class 313
into a Covid Lateral Test, testing centre, for our staff
would you like to come and see it?
i said yes, let's go!
so i'm in Brighton which is weird because it's the furthest that i've been from home
in weeks, like i say, i've been invited here, officially
to visit, and film
and i can already see, it's on my right here on Platform 8
there's this class 313, which has been setup
as a Covid testing facility, for staff
are you Craig? - I am indeed
Craig, i need to talk to you just tell me first, LFT stands for what?
- Lateral Flow Test
Currently standing in the lateral flow testing centre
here at Brighton station, the facility
came about after we were issued a grant
from the DHSC, the department of health and social care
overall the target, main target is to
to create a safe working environment for all those using the station as a workplace
so a Lateral Flow Tests, detects
Corona virus pathogen
which is often carried by those not showing any symptoms
this is slightly different to the PCR test
the lateral flow test provides the results within 30 minutes
I can't help but notice that we're on a
Class 313, one of the ... oldest trains on the network, why this unit?
quite simply the 377 and 387 is more comfortable for customers
which has freed up a 313 service
as we're operating the, more comfortable services on the existing network
yeah, but now i've got to ask why don't you use the 377's all the time!
rather than these cronkly old trains
we just don't quite have enough of them so as the timetable is reduced during the pandemic
we've been able to move them around
onto the less used areas of the network
Craig, the obvious thing must be
whilst i'm here
could I get a lateral flow test done?
we can certainly arrange that
but i have to wait half an hour for the results
we will notify you in half an hour
shall we do it? - Let's do it
Good afternoon. this is your registration form
if you could open your camera and scan this QR code please
once the website's up if you could register your details
then we will for from there
Hello! - Hello
i have this for you, how's your day?
my day's not too bad but i only just stared how's yours?
i've never had a test before so this is slightly unerving
it's easy, it's easy have you eaten or drank in the last half hour?
i had a cup of tea about an hour ago, is that ok
that''ll be fine
if i just pass you this, this is the swab
then if you just read what's on the poster to your left
Ok! - Ok it's the one swab
one swab. you do yout throat first and then you go up the nose each nostril
and then you go up your nose each nostril - Lovely!
twist the swab tip against your tonsils
or where they used to be if you don't have tonsils! i love that ... if you're had your tonsils out
should say you put the swab on your tonsils for 10 seconds
and then up your nose, rotating it for 10 to 15 seconds
Ok ...
aaaah!
ach .. that's 10
until you feel resistance, right?
until your eyes start watering!
ah .. that's about now. Ok!
ooh, it's gonna make me want to sneeze - yeah it will do
ah, i'm gonna sneeze. no i'm not.
so shall i just put - there you go
and that's it, and you put it right in there
straight in here, get as much as the solution onto it
by the way, this is Jay ... and you've volunteered to do this
your normally work at three bridges? - normally at Three Bridges yes
what made you want to do this
well, it's to help to just doing the extra help we all need
to keep our nation safe, so to speak
and for you to learn what you had to do you were trained by the NHS
there's a procedure which you follow right
you have to go and do an App
and go through all the tests and everything on that
and they pass you off
so once you've got 100% on all the tests you've got to do
then you're allowed to work here and do this
right, thank you Jay - You're welcome
so i'm going to wait half an hour
for my test to come back .. hpoefully negative
there are still trains leaving, obviously there's not a lot of passengers about
platform 8, this 313 is parked up
i just saw one leave which is going to Seaford
and down the end here
there'a a gentleman caaaaaalled, Chris
you're gonna have to remind me of your job title Chris
customer services director, for Southern
how's the whole ... travel situation going?
keeping things going i've seen there's a gentleman out this morning
spraying the Zoono again
what message have you got for your customers again at this time?
so the goverments advice is still to stay at home unless you absolutely have to
go into work, but my message to people is that rail is safe
and it's going to be safe when you're allowed to
travel again when we come out of lockdown
so Zoono is regularly applied on our trains and our stations to make sure those are safe
and we clean all more than 2700 carriages every night
zoono gets applied to high touch locations as well
such as ticket vending machines in our stations and ticket offices
we've got more then 1200 non touch hand sanitising points across our stations
and of couse in places like Brighton we've got
one way systems in place to keep customers away from each other and separate those flows
so there's loads of things we're doing to keep people safe
and we're ready
and looking forward to welcoming people back onto the railway
the staff tell me on my phone
i should be getting a text any second ... any second!
shortly!
NHS Covid notification
your coronavirus lateral flow test is negative
Hurrraaah!
it's likely - that's interesting - it's likely you were infection when the test was done
keep following coronavirus advice including
regular handwashing, social distancing
and wearing a face covering where recommended
excellent ... negative!
*chuckles * negative
right so remember all these lovely people are volunteers thanks guys!
they're all staff that have volunteered their spare time to come and do this
this opened today
it's going to be running until the timetable change in May
all GTR staff can come down, appparantly there's one at East Croydon as well
and there's one at Horney depot
you can come and get a test here ... nice one