Autonomous robots have been deployed at St Pancras station in London to clean and disinfect surfaces to stop the spread of Covid-19.
The robots, developed by US-based firm UVD Robots, have been deployed to the station’s washrooms and main concourse in an effort to increase cleanliness and boost confidence in travelers.
Using ultraviolet light to kill bacteria on surfaces – including the coronavirus.
Stations suffered a blow on Tuesday when Prime Minister Boris Johnson told people to work from home again where possible and also ordered restaurants and bars to close early to tackle a second wave of Covid-19 infections.
St Pancras International saw 34.6 million entries and exits in the year to March 2019, the most recently available yearly data from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), making it the ninth-busiest station in the country. The ORR has said the pandemic caused a dramatic fall in rail usage.
Visit our live blog for the latest updates: Coronavirus news live
‘The main thing for us is to get the confidence of customers,’ said Jay Newton, Head of Stations Engineering and Operations for the High Speed One Channel tunnel rail link.
‘We are the first train station to bring this type of technology in because we want to allow people to use a train station with confidence, use our retail units with confidence, and slowly get back to a normal way,’ he said.
The robots use ultraviolet light to sweep large areas without the need for chemical disinfectant, the station said, adding the technology could kill nearly 100% of bacteria and viruses on surfaces and in the surrounding air in minutes.
St Pancras International is the terminus of the Eurostar link to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and also shares links to six London Underground lines with neighbouring King’s Cross station.
