Do you have to wear a mask on public transport in England? As it stands, the answer is: “no” when you are travelling across England by any form of public transport; “yes” when you are travelling on the Metrolink in Greater Manchester; “no” when you are using other forms of public transport in Greater Manchester; “yes” when travelling on Transport for London services; “no” in most of Yorkshire, but in West Yorkshire you will have to wear a mask at bus stations. In the West Midlands, the west of England and the Tees Valley, the answer is, “No, but please if you could wear a mask we’d really appreciate it.”
That mess of regulations in part reflects the different levers available to the different mayors. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, can make it a compulsory condition of carriage on Transport for London services that you wear a mask – but he can’t make it a criminal offence if you don’t. The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, can make it a condition of carriage on the Metrolink tram service – but not on buses or commuter railways. Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority, has similar powers over transport to Burnham, but has opted to go for a blanket approach of asking commuters to wear masks rather than a half-and-half approach, as has his Labour counterpart in the west of England, Dan Norris, and the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen. Tracy Brabin, the newly elected West Yorkshire Labour mayor, has opted to make it compulsory in bus stations, which she does control, in order to “nudge” people into wearing them everywhere.
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