UK transport ministers asked train companies to dress staff in the purple tabards meant for “journey makers”, after the promised “army” of volunteers to remind travellers to wear a face covering failed to materialise this week. The last-minute request to keep up appearances, relayed to train operators by the Rail Delivery Group, was largely rejected by bosses, it has emerged. However, it is understood that some Network Rail staff were sent to locate the magenta Olympic Games Makers vests from London 2012, to coincide with the introduction of mandatory face coverings this week and busier rail services as some lockdown measures were eased. Invoking the spirit of the 2012 London Olympics, Shapps had announced in May that thousands of volunteers would be out to provide “reassurance and advice” to commuters and remind them to wear masks, which became mandatory on public transport on Monday. He said: “It will go a long way towards helping transport and passengers cope.” Later, he said the government would have “actually a whole army of volunteers … They’ll be wearing purple tabards and they will remind you to put your face covering on.” However, the initiative came as something of a surprise to the rail industry, which regarded the presence of untrained volunteers on stations during a pandemic as an unnecessary complication, and a potential safety risk. After the RMT union said it would ballot for a strike over the scheme, which it said was launched without consultation and would undercut safety-critical rail jobs, the charity tasked with staffing Shapps’s purple army, Volunteering Matters, decided to hold back until the row was resolved. Paul Reddish, the chief executive of Volunteering Matters, said there were still discussions ongoing with the Department for Transport, but there had been issues about where the 3,000 volunteers they were recruiting could be deployed around stations. He said: “They cannot substitute for paid roles, and we are not going where there are no rail staff. We’re ready to go, if indeed it gets to that stage, and the volunteers can have a good experience. But we’re not at that stage yet.” Shapps had first said that volunteers could appear as early as 1 June, but ministers had particularly targeted 15 June, when a big rise in passenger numbers was expected when lockdown restrictions were eased, and wearing face masks on public transport became mandatory. While the number of rail passengers is slowly increasing, travel remains at around 10% of normal levels, according to the latest DfT figures, and many services are virtually empty. The DfT said it was aware of union concerns, and work was ongoing with Volunteering Matters and other organisations to establish where volunteers could add the most value to passenger journeys. The RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “It is very clear that this is another government policy that was made up on the hoof to grab headlines, rather than actually sitting down and working through the consequences. Our position remains that we will take whatever action is required to prevent volunteers from being brought in as free labour on the railway.”