Britons headed back to the office for the first time in more than a year today as commuters continued to return to city centres with lockdown rules easing further.
Rush-hour traffic congestion in London was at 65 per cent at 8am today, up from last Friday (55 per cent) and the averages in 2020 (49 per cent) and 2019 (63 per cent).
Office staff posted selfies on social media as they took the train in to work this morning – with some saying it was their first time back in since March 2020.
Some parts of the mainline rail network expect passenger numbers to return to up to 85 per cent of pre-Covid levels today as step three of the roadmap gets underway.
Transport for London said Tube journeys up to 10am this morning were at 37 per cent of normal demand, and up 5 per cent from last week. The total was 840,000 entries and exits compared to a 2.27million baseline of Monday, May 20, 2019.
Bus journeys were at 61 per cent of normal, and up 1 per cent from last week. There were 1.03million boarding taps compared to an expected 1.68million baseline.
The Government still wants people to work from home if they can, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it is his ‘intention’ to end this guidance from June 21.
Also in step three today, six people or two households will be allowed to meet indoors again – and pubs and restaurants will be able to serve customers indoors.
Figures revealed today that homeworking rates soared during 2020 thanks to the pandemic lockdowns and Government efforts to keep offices and factories closed.
It comes as:
- Thousands of people have departed on international flights after the ban on foreign holidays was lifted for people in Britain;
- The estimated cost of the Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has risen to an ‘eye-watering’ £372 billion, a government watchdog said;
- There is less than a 50 per cent chance that the June 21 plan for lifting all legal limits on social contact will be delayed, a member of SAGE said.
- GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi’s Covid-19 vaccine saw strong results from its phase 2 trial and will now move on to a larger phase 3 trial;
- Coronavirus restrictions have relaxed in Scotland, with most mainland areas moving to Level 2 as the country progresses out of lockdown;
- Pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes in Wales can offer indoor service from Monday for the first time since December as the country moves into alert level two.
Rush-hour traffic builds up on the A102 in Greenwich, South East London, this morning
TomTom data showed rush-hour traffic congestion in London was at 65 per cent at 8am today, up from last Friday (55 per cent) and the averages in 2020 (49 per cent) and 2019 (63 per cent)
Last week in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Felicity Buchan said areas like central London were ‘hurting, partly because of the lack of commuters’.
The Prime Minister said it was ‘certainly our intention’ to allow people to go back to work next month, and said ‘more clarity’ would be provided by the end of May.
He added: ‘London and our other great cities depend on people having the confidence to go to work. I think it will come back, and I think it could come back remarkably quickly, but it does depend on keeping the virus down.’
It comes after car and public transport use has surged in recent weeks in a sign Britons are itching to return to offices and city centres as lockdown restrictions are eased.
Department for Transport figures show daily car traffic volumes jumped from an average 65 per cent of pre-pandemic levels at the beginning of March to 86 per cent on the week of May 3 to 9.
For all types of motor vehicles it jumped from 71 per cent to 89 per cent, while mainline rail use more than doubled from 18 per cent to 38 per cent.
Bus passenger numbers also paint a picture of a nation raring to return to pre-Covid normality.
Bus use between the same periods outside London soared from 31 per cent of pre-Covid levels in March to a daily average of 57 per cent last week, while in the capital it jumped from 37 per cent to 58 per cent.
The London Underground saw passenger numbers more than double from 19 per cent to 39 per cent.
Travel dipped slightly on Monday, May 3 compared to other days in the week because it was a Bank Holiday, meaning average daily usage across that week would have been even higher were it a normal day.
Despite the large leap in volumes, the figures suggest people are still far more willing to return to their cars than public transport, with a long way still to go before a return to pre-Covid levels.
This is partly due to social distancing measures still in place on buses and trains, which limit the numbers able to board.
More people switching to home working is also a factor, along with some people still being apprehensive about taking public transport for fear of catching the virus.
Earlier this month a coalition of public transport providers teamed up with hospitality chiefs by sending a letter to Boris Johnson urging him to encourage people back onto buses and trains as more lockdown restrictions are lifted.
The letter was signed by British Chambers of Commerce, the British Retail Consortium, UK Hospitality, CBI, the British Beer and Pub Association the Rail Delivery Group and the Confederation of Passenger Transport.
Paul Tuohy, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: ‘As England prepares to take the next step out of lockdown, it is vital that the Government sends a loud and clear message that travelling by public transport is both safe and desirable.
‘Without this we risk slowing down the high street recovery as many people will simply stay away, or worse seeing towns and cities more reliant on public transport being left behind while car-heavy areas experience increased pollution and congestion.’
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, said: ‘It is vital for hospitality – and for Britain’s beleaguered high streets – that the public know that they can travel safely into towns and cities.
‘Considerable efforts and investments have ensured that it is safe to do so, and that fact must be conveyed far and wide.’
Car traffic volumes hit lows of 22 per cent of pre-pandemic levels after the first lockdown began in March 2020, with mainline rail passenger numbers plummeting to 4 per cent.
London Tube passenger levels sunk to just 3 per cent at one point while they fell to 10 per cent for buses across the country.
Homeworking rates rocketed by 60 per cent during 2020 as lockdown took hold with affluent London and the South East leading the way and people in North East, Wales and Northern Ireland seeing the lowest rates
By DAVID WILCOCK, WHITEHALL CORRESPONDENT FOR MAILONLINE
Homeworking rates soared during 2020 thanks to the pandemic lockdowns and Government efforts to keep offices and factories closed, new figures revealed today.
The proportion of the working population that stayed at home rose by 60 per cent last year, with around one in 12 people regularly swapping the office for the spare bedroom or the kitchen table.
But according to new numbers from the Office for National Statistics today, there was a wide variety in the rate across the UK.
In London and the South East, which have a greater proportion of affluent workers in office jobs, 10.5 per cent worked from home last year.
But in the North East of England, the East Midlands and Northern Ireland, areas with higher proportion of manual employment, the rate was below seven per cent.
The figures for last year were released as question marks remained over whether the public would be freed from working-from-home guidance in June.
Hopes are high that under Step 4 of Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown staff will be encouraged to return to city centers to provide a much-needed boost for local service businesses.
But the new Indian variant that is prevalent in some Northern towns is giving scientists pause over whether the lockdown lifting should be slowed down.
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