Commuter services to restart on Monday 15 June

We are delighted to announce that we will be restarting a limited commuter service on Monday, 15 June 2020.

Our priority is the safety of our customers and staff, and we have been working hard in the background to ensure that our services are the safest way to commute to London. 

We will shortly be publishing a new Safety Standard, designed following advice from UK GOV, DfT, WHO and our trade associations the CPT and FTA. The standard will outline the changes we are making to our operations as well as adjustments we are asking passengers to take to enhance safety, including the mandatory wearing of a face-covering while onboard. Before the Safety Standard is published we kindly request customers wishing to travel from 15 June to familiarise themselves with the following important information: 

Journey reservation 

To ensure we can provide you with adequate space onboard, we will be limiting the number of passengers per vehicle. To achieve this, we will, for the time being, require you to book your journey in advance. In the coming days, we will be launching a quick and easy mobile ticket platform that will allow you to purchase tickets and make journey reservations via our website. In the meantime, please kindly make your reservation by calling the commuter team on 0208 300 3001. You can either call us daily to make a single reservation or, for convenience, make reservations for several days in a row up to one week in advance. During the first week, while we need to take reservations by phone, you must call us on 0208 300 3001 by 18:00 on the last working day before you wish to travel to make your reservation. Upon launching the mobile ticket platform, customers will be able to make a reservation with much shorter notice.

Vehicle capacity

To help maintain social distancing, we will, as mentioned, be limiting the number of passengers per vehicle. Passenger volumes will be managed through the mobile ticketing platform to ensure the right size vehicle(s) are allocated per service. Spare capacity will be limited, and any passengers arriving without a reservation may not be able to travel. We will return to more normal operation as soon as it is deemed safe to do so - in the meantime, your co-operation is very much appreciated.

Boarding and seating

To limit the amount passengers pass each other, we kindly request that when you board you take a seat as far to the rear of the vehicle as possible, and sit by the window, leaving one empty row between yourself and the passenger seated behind you. Seating plans will be provided onboard as a guide. We ask that you do not use aisle seats during these times unless you are travelling with another person in your family group.

Face coverings

As you may be aware, the Government has recently mandated that all persons travelling on public transport must wear a face covering from 15 June. This applies to our services and we, therefore, regret that any passenger failing to wear a face-covering as they board one of our vehicles will not be permitted to travel. If you have a medical condition that prevents you from wearing a face-covering please kindly email us in advance of your journey so we may provide further assistance.

Tickets

There will be changes to the way tickets are handled to minimise contact between you and your driver with the mobile ticketing platform shortly superseding all paper and plastic season tickets. If you plan to travel with us w/c 15 June the commuter team will provide further details regarding ticket handling as well as an update on frozen tickets when you make your reservation.

If you wish to travel from Monday 15 June, please now make your reservation by calling 0208 300 3001 ASAP. 

We look forward to sharing further updates with you as soon as the mobile ticketing platform, and Safety Standard are live. May we also take this opportunity to remind you, if not already done so, to take our short 2-minute survey regarding your future travel plans. This vital information will help us develop an appropriate commuter offering as more customers return to work. 

If you have any concerns, comments or feedback, please do email or call us at any time. We aim to provide the safest and most comfortable commuter service to London, and feedback to help us to achieve that is always welcome. 

Best wishes and we hope to see you back on board soon, 

Centaur Commute Team