How can Britain move on from quarantine measures?

Simon Calder answers your questions on the developing quarantine situation, plus Veterans Railcards and Berlin’s new airport

Heathrow airport: Britain has a way to go before it becomes a ‘trailblazer’ in quarantine-free travel (Simon Calder)

Q I read that the transport secretary has promised Britain will be a trailblazer in a new travel system to allow people to escape quarantine. How is it going to work?

John K

A In June, just as barriers elsewhere in the world were coming down, and British holidaymakers and the travel industry felt hopeful about the prospects for the summer, the government took a trailblazing step: imposing mandatory self-isolation for travellers arriving from anywhere, regardless of how low infections were in a particular location.

Another world-beating handbrake turn occurred a month later, with dozens of European countries opened up for adventure for UK visitors. Within a couple of weeks these so-called travel corridors started closing down again.

The quarantine rule, coupled with the simultaneous Foreign Office warning against all but essential travel, remains as effectively a ban on international movement to and from almost all countries. Which isn’t great for those of us who long for adventures abroad, nor for the UK economy when “travel and tourism [is] so vital to our national prosperity, contributing over £250bn a year”.

Those are the words of the transport secretary, Grant Shapps. Fortunately he has a cunning plan, as he told Abta this week. During the travel association’s online convention, he revealed plans to implement a “test and release” regime to reduce the self-isolation period in the UK: “A single test for international arrivals around a week after arrival.”

Even if the duration of quarantine were halved, though, it would still deter a large number of prospective travellers. So Shapps added: “We’re also working on schemes with partners and countries to establish whether self-isolation could take place before departure.”

Unfortunately, the Department for Transport is giving no further details of how this might work. So it is pure speculation for me to come up with an example. Perhaps a New Yorker who wanted to come to the UK could self-isolate at home in Manhattan for two weeks and take a Covid-19 test shortly before the flight to London. Assuming it is negative, she or he would presumably be able to cross the Atlantic and step from the plane without needing to quarantine on arrival.

Q I’m confused. I arrived at Bristol airport from France on my way home to South Wales, where I live in a lockdown borough. A member of UK Border Force told me I do not need to quarantine but I must stay in the borough in Wales. She said I can leave the house once I get home, as I will be under Welsh rules. Is this correct? Incidentally, it was the only flight that afternoon, so there was no chance she was confusing flights from exempt and non-exempt countries.

David J

A No, she was not correct. As the complexity of travel increases, it is understandable that officials as well as travellers should be uncertain about what exactly the rules are.

First, everyone coming back from France – as well as Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey and most other countries – must self-isolate for 14 days on their return to the UK. You can leave home only for medical assistance, to attend court or, heaven forbid, a funeral. You may go shopping for essentials if there is no one else who can supply provisions. Going out to work, to exercise, to socialise or to walk the dog is not permitted. The obligation overrides all local lockdown restrictions and is the same regardless of where you live. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are now basically convergent in their requirements; one difference is that the penalty for failure to comply is £480 in Scotland, £1,000 elsewhere.

Next, the role of UK Border Force is to ensure that everyone who arrives in the UK from abroad has completed a passenger locator form – the online report of where you have been in the past 14 days. The information is passed on to the health authorities in each of the four nations. As a resident of Wales who has been in a country on the “no-go” list you may well be contacted by Public Health Wales during your two weeks of confinement.

I fear that you and the official are far from the only people confused by the apparently exponential growth in travel restrictions. Let’s hope they begin to untangle soon. 

Q When you reported on the new Veterans Railcard, you said that Grand Central and Hull Trains were not participating. Why not? Do train companies have to bear the cost of the railcard discount or is it the government?

Dave T

A Applications are now open for the UK’s ninth national Railcard – with an estimated 830,000 armed forces veterans eligible to apply. “UK veterans who served at least one day in Her Majesty’s armed forces or merchant mariners who have seen duty on legally defined military operations” who invest £21 in the card can, from 5 November, get 34 per cent off most rail tickets. But not aboard trains run by the two “Open Access” operators on the East Coast main line: Grand Central and Hull Trains. They are privately owned enterprises competing against the state-run incumbent, LNER.

As far as I can tell, this is the first time that train operators have declined to join a railcard scheme. Their thinking is, approximately: “We manage our pricing to deliver good-value tickets for everyone. We can really do without having to give one-third off these fares to yet another cohort of hundreds of thousands of travellers.”

That reasonable point of view has become particularly relevant with the collapse of passenger numbers due to the coronavirus pandemic and the only recently eased public messaging warning against rail travel.

LNER, the main operator on the East Coast main line, is publicly owned and all its losses are covered by the taxpayer. The same goes for other operators who were appointed by the Department for Transport (DfT) to run franchises. They are now acting as outsourced providers, with the DfT (and ultimately the taxpayer) making up the revenue shortfall. So the government is certainly bearing the cost of the discount schemes (and much else besides).

Hull Trains and Grand Central have no such safety net. A spokesperson for the latter says: “Grand Central, along with fellow Open Access train operators, continues to run services through the toughest trading conditions in living memory.

“Operating under an Open Access business model means we take the full financial risk of any local or national discount schemes we participate in. We continue to be recognised as the UK’s best-value operator in the twice-yearly National Rail Passenger Survey and last month we launched our own 25 per cent discount offer to students.

“On board-social distancing, local lockdowns and the ensuing drop in rail passengers mean Grand Central and its fellow Open Access operators face extremely tough business decisions daily, as we look to attract a share of a hugely reduced market. It is under these circumstances that, regrettably, we recognised it was not viable to participate in the latest national discount scheme.”

Veterans Railcards holders are of course free to buy tickets on LNER, where the discount applies.

Q I’m confused. The new Berlin Brandenburg airport opens on 31 October 2020. But Ryanair are selling flights from East Midlands, Manchester and Stansted to Berlin from 25 October 2020. How can they sell flights to an airport that is not open?

Howard M

A The much-delayed new airport for the German capital is, as you say, due to open on the last day of the month. Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt, to give it the full name, has been in development since 1996. It was originally due to open in 2011, but catastrophic planning and construction blunders have delayed the launch by almost a decade – as well as pushing costs above €10bn (£9.1bn).

Among the many missteps was a vision of BER (as it will be coded) as a hub airport to rival Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris CDG and London Heathrow – even though it appears almost all traffic will be “point-to-point”, and mainly on budget airlines such as Ryanair, easyJet and Eurowings.

The location is adjacent to Schonefeld airport (coded SXF), the gateway for the old East Berlin, which for around 20 years has served as the low-cost airport for the German capital – with Ryanair one of the primary customers. The existing SXF runway is part of the new airport complex and, even when BER opens, the old Schonefeld terminal will continue to function.

The new airport authority says: “With the start of the winter flight schedule on 25 October 2020, Schonefeld SXF airport will become Terminal 5 of BER.” So in a sense passengers from those UK airports will be pioneers.

Fares on Ryanair are currently very low: Manchester to Berlin on “opening day” is £18.30, with Stansted at £33. On the following day, 26 October, £10 will get you from East Midlands to BER. But bear in mind the increasingly strict German quarantine rules. At present you must quarantine if you have been anywhere in the UK apart from the midlands and south of England in the past 14 days, and this may be extended to the whole country.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder