- Statistics published by Department for Transport show compared with pre-lockdown levels, train use remains at 18% and bus use is at 23% (20 July 2020)
- Car usage is up to 85% pre-lockdown levels
- Biggest problem for employers is how they encourage staff back to work safely
- Government and industry agree the key to restoring passenger confidence is real-time personalised journey information
Statistics published by the Department for Transport show the British public are continuing to avoid public transport as employers grapple with how they can encourage staff to return to work safely.
Compared with pre-lockdown levels, train use was at 18% on 20 July; bus use outsde London is at 33% and London Underground Use is at 23%.
The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, who has been driving into London himself for the past 17 weeks, has acknowledged that the “big problem” for employers is how they encourage staff back to work safely.
Government and industry agree that the key to restoring passenger confidence in the transport network is providing passengers with personalised information then enables them to better plan journeys and avoid crowded trains / buses.
Government support:
In May, the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps announced millions of rail passengers will soon be able to receive personalised updates – on how disruption and crowding may affect their journey, providing alternatives and helping people maintain social distancing when they need to travel – to help keep them safely on the move, thanks to British tech start-up Zipabout’s product, Passenger Connect.
Zipabout’s Passenger Connect platform is powering National Rail Enquiries’ real-time, personalised messaging journey updates – these are based on intent to travel data which can help point to how busy the transport network will be.
On Monday this week, Rail Minister Chris Heaton Harris said the DfT is ‘working with NRE on increasing the visibility and promotion of the messaging service on the website and app. Work is underway currently to consider how we can roll out similar services to users of other public transport’.
Industry support
The CBI said in a report published Friday: ‘To support better decision making by businesses and commuters, operators should continue to explore new ways of sharing real time information about capacity on services. Already, the success of National Rail’s warning system, alerting commuters about which trains and stations are likely to be busy has garnered positive reception amongst employers eager to ensure their staff travel safely’.
The impact of public transport use languishing at record lows…
- The British Chambers of Commerce said businesses are operating at half of their pre-crisis capacity in a sign that the recovery is taking longer than expected. Businesses cited customer demand and the threat of local lockdown as the top two obstacles.
- Taxpayers are continuing to subsidise empty commuter services in some parts of the country, costing us millions of pounds (propping up railways between March and the middle of June cost £3.5bn)
- In June, retail footfall was still particularly low on high streets (declined 65.1% for the month), with many customers refraining from travel into city centres: in London retail footfall fell 80.8% compared to last June
- GDP recovery has been slower than expected: UK GDP expanded by 1.8% in May on the month, but economists had expected a monthly rebound of 5.5%
Crispin Humm, Director at Zipabout, said: “We need to restore passenger confidence in the public transport network if we are to get Britain moving again and rebuild the UK economy. The key to doing this is convincing the public it is safe to use bus and rail to travel to and from work, by providing them with real-time personalised information about their journey.
“Rail passengers throughout the country can access real-time journey updates, including disruption and overcrowding alerts, via the National Rail Enquiries’ ‘Keep Me Updated’ function, which can be found online, on NRE’s app or by searching National Rail Enquiries on Messenger.
“Zipabout are looking to extend the service across the entire transport network, including buses. We recently launched the service on buses in Oxfordshire in collaboration with Oxontime, a bus information service run by independent bus operators, and Oxfordshire County Council.”
Photo credit: Alex Yeung/ Shutterstock.com
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