Half of rail commuters expect to travel more by train over the next three months as employers demand more days in the office, research revealed on Monday.
Weekday travel on national rail services has flat-lined at about 82 per cent to 85 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, excluding up to 738,000 passengers a day carried by the Elizabeth line.
But the survey, for the Rail Delivery Group, which included more than 1,500 respondents living in London or the wider South-East, showed many commuters and business passengers expected to make more weekday journeys as attitudes changed towards allowing staff to work from home.
However there was widespread concern at the impact of the unresolved 18-month rail dispute, though neither the RMT nor Aslef have announced new strike dates.
Overall, 37 per cent of all rail passengers – including those travelling for leisure at weekends, where there has been the greatest resurgence in rail travel – expect to make more journeys, compared with nine per cent expecting to travel less.
About two-thirds of respondents said special offers and more flexible tickets would increase their use of rail. Some commuters who no longer travel five days a week complain they cannot find a season ticket that fits their new work patterns.
Jacqueline Starr, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “We can see that despite the challenges the industry is facing, there is potential for growth, but only if we can bring forward long overdue changes to ways of working that allow us to provide more reliable and regular weekend services.”
It comes as more than 20 of the capital’s big businesses, including British Land, Landsec and Heathrow airport, urged Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to agree a long-term funding deal for Transport for London to prevent the city “grinding to a halt”.
TfL is seeking £500m for the 12 months next April as part of a five-year capital – or investment – funding deal, to enable it to complete the Piccadilly line upgrade and make progress with other shelved schemes, such as new trains on the Bakerloo line.
A letter to Mr Hunt organised by the Business LDN organisation said TfL deserved similar deals to those given to Network Rail, National Highways and other “city regions” in the UK. “The alternative is slow decline and greater costs in the future,” the letter said.
“Without a multi-year capital funding deal, London risks grinding to a halt. As assets age they become less reliable. To maintain the safety of the network, that will inevitably result in more frequent disruption for passengers.
“And we know that when the quality of transport services deteriorates passengers leaving the network, taking revenue with them, and making future investment even harder to find. This spiral of decline must be avoided at all costs.”
