Platform 8 at Brighton railway station has a train that has been adapted into a Covid testing service for railway staff.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), operator of Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express is behind the scheme which has seen two other testing centres set up for staff, along with this one at Brighton station.

The train has been adapted to include screens and curtains and allows them to offer twice-weekly rapid lateral flow testing to those rail staff who cannot work from home.

The other test centres are at GTR offices at East Croydon and at Hornsey engineering depot in North London, and mean that up to 1,250 staff can benefit from the testing.

Staff have volunteered to run the centres and more may open if these trials prove a success.

The rapid lateral flow tests provide results by text in an hour and take less than 4 minutes to complete.

GTR Head of Safety and Health Mark Whitley said: “One-in-three people with Covid show no symptoms. These tests are the latest in a long line of measures we’ve been taking to protect our colleagues and will help identify carriers before they have the potential to infect others. It will help prevent workplace outbreaks and, along with regular sanitising, give our staff and passengers added reassurance.”

Robert Nisbet, Director of Nations and Regions for the Rail Delivery Group which represents the rail industry said: “Implementing the use of lateral flow testing will help identify asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19 and, alongside train operators’ enhanced cleaning, is helping to make work safer for our people and ensure those who need to travel can do so with confidence.”

Brad Lade is an Onboard Supervisor with Southern and one of those who have volunteered to help with the testing. He said: “I wanted to do something which will benefit people, to give them and my family peace of mind that my colleagues and I are Covid-free.”

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