On the first day of compulsory use of masks on public transport, the vast majority of subway travelers, except for a few absent-minded people, wore them. However, some vigilantes and national police in charge of enforcing the norm within the stations did not have the necessary medical equipment, as this newspaper has verified in the Atocha and Moncloa stations. “I am not allowed to speak,” replies a subway attendant at Atocha station when asked why. Next, a group of five officers, who drink coffee in the only open establishment, talk about it: none have a mask. “The orders are to stop all passengers who do not wear a mask on the train,” says one of them.
The situation is paradoxical at least, since users like Yully Ramírez, a 36-year-old cleaning worker, have not been allowed by agents to take the suburban there, in Atocha, to go to work because they do not have a mask. “I was going to catch the train but they didn’t let me,” says Ramírez, who had been accompanied to the station by her husband and her seven-year-old daughter Tatiana, although for the time being minors’ rides should only be done with an adult. to return to the street in search of masks, because at that time they were not being distributed. The Government delegation in Madrid announced the distribution on Monday of 2,052,000 masks for public transport users in the most important points of various locations in the region; of them, almost 902,600 in the capital.
The Minister of Transport of the Community of Madrid, Ángel Garrido, this Monday in the Metro. In video, Garrido trusts that there is no need to impose sanctions for travelers to wear a mask. Chema Moya (EFE) | EP
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In other parts of the network, users have not found surveillance. “There is no one controlling and they have not given me a mask,” said Maribel, a 33-year-old woman, at the La Latina stop, where no vigilante or Metro worker controlled access at mid-morning. It also occurs in Las Ventas. Sindy Forero arrived at said station at half past ten in the morning from Nuevos Ministerios and did not see any security control or police. “I’ve been wearing the mask for a week, when I finally found a pharmacy,” says this 35-year-old woman.
In addition to the police, the guards also have orders not to allow users to travel without a mask, but for the moment, according to the Madrid Transport Minister, Ángel Garrido, they do not. “We are going to give a small margin, a few days to accommodate this new requirement,” he indicated.
The new order, which does not contemplate sanctions, establishes the mandatory use of masks that cover the nose and mouth of all users of public and collective transport services, both land, bus, taxi, VTC and rail, as well as air transport. . But it also determines that transportation service workers who have direct contact with passengers must be provided with masks, as well as having access to hydro-alcoholic solutions.
Garrido has assured that on this first Monday of compulsory use 88% of commuters entered the subway with their own mask. According to the counselor, between six and ten in the morning the flow of passengers has increased by 22% compared to the same Monday last week, a rise that must be “understood” in the context of progressive de-escalation. . There have been a total, in that time slot, 84,597 travelers.
Metro de Madrid has put up posters at various stations to remember the mandatory use of masks with the slogan I protect you, you protect me, that will be extended to the entire Metro network. Through the public address system and on the illuminated signs, travelers are also told that covering their nose and mouth is not optional: “Madrid Metro remembers that the use of a mask is mandatory inside the wagons and their facilities.” Hearing the ad in Las Ventas, Dani Flórez, 23, begins to search his backpack. The mask has been forgotten. “I did not know it was mandatory and I have left it at home, it is very uncomfortable,” he says while waiting for the subway. The same has happened to Roberto Ramírez, 55, who just arrived in Madrid this morning from Valencia.
At the Callao station everyone wears a mask, some blue, others made at home, some with flower patterns, and only a few have an FFP2 mask. Laura Velázquez, 28, comes from Atocha and is the first time wearing a mask since the pandemic began. “It still makes me really uncomfortable and I can’t quite adjust it,” he says as he tries to cover his nose, which many users of public transport mistakenly wear on the outside of the mask.
Asked about the masks of its own workers, the public company assures that it is delivering 1,500 units a day to the personnel who are at the stations. “We have thousands of masks delivered. Workers without masks are specific cases, they are complying with the regulations and from the company we have given them the measures to do so, ”says a Metro Madrid spokesperson.
“Metro Madrid has been providing masks to workers for a few days, but many of them do not want to spend them, in case they are not given again. The masks they give them are not reusable, ”denounces the CCOO metro section. “They only tell them to use them if they are less than two meters from the passengers,” explains Juan Carlos de la Cruz, from CCOO.
And the police? “The Government has not provided all the agents with the sanitary material as it has said. Many colleagues are wearing homemade masks,” says Pablo Pérez, spokesman for Jusapol, the majority union in the body. “It is surreal that the police are asking people use the mask when they don’t have it ”, he regrets.
In the rest of the transport, little influx. The free bus 001 towards Atocha is completely empty during the whole Moncloa-Atocha Renfe route. “It was a very quiet morning,” says the driver. In these vehicles there are still no signs or announcements over the public address system about the use of a mandatory mask. Many of the buses that cross the Gran Vía at midday are almost empty. Rento de Atocha station is deserted. There are almost no travelers, no suitcases. “For me, the use of a mask is mandatory at all times. Even if it is uncomfortable, we have to take care of ourselves because we do not know who can be carriers of the virus, “says Miguel Ángel Varo, 49, while waiting for his train to go to Castellón.
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