In The News: 1st October

Click here to listen to the latest news on Thursday, 1st October 2020

The rail minister has cast doubt on the introduction of flexible rail season tickets.

That’s according to an article in The Times, in which Chris Heaton-Harris said the tickets which could be used for only two or three days a week were being considered by the Department for Transport to provide better value to part-time commuters.

The article said that he suggested, however, that the second wave of coronavirus could delay the roll-out. He said it was “quite difficult to judge” how to “tempt commuters back to our railways”.

Mr Heaton-Harris raised concerns over costs, saying new ticketing proposals would have to be “future-proofed” before being introduced.

People have ignored the work from home advice, transport figures suggest, as trains and buses in the capital were as busy as previous weeks.

An article in The Daily Telegraph says figures from Transport for London showed that the number of journeys taken on its networks stayed roughly the same in the days after the Government changed its work from home advice.

Last Wednesday, the day after the Government said people should work from home “if they can”, there were 3.6 million journeys on London buses and 1.41 million journeys on the Tube.

Several of the newspapers cover yesterday’s announcement that Northern England is to lead a British transport revolution as a global centre for developing hydrogen-powered trains.

The i paper reports on Transport minister Rachel Maclean’s announcement that the UK’s first hydrogen transport hub is to open in the Tees Valley to accelerate Britain’s ambitions for low-carbon commuting.

Click here for more details.

Finally, mental health advocate and entertainer Ruby Wax is among the health and wellbeing speakers to star at this year’s inaugural Rail Wellbeing Live.

The 2-day virtual event being held on November 4th and 5th is focussed on tackling the historic issues around wellbeing found among the 240,000-strong UK rail workforce.

Click here for more details.

Photo credit: BCRRE / Porterbrook

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