Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Working from homeLatest NewsBusiness travelCommuting

Return to office hit by reduced train services

by Adam McCulloch 17 Feb 2022
by Adam McCulloch 17 Feb 2022 London Bridge station
Photo: Shutterstock
London Bridge station
Photo: Shutterstock

More 20% of train services that were running before the Covid pandemic have not returned, new data shows.

A BBC analysis has revealed that one month after work-from-home guidance was lifted, some commuters are struggling to get to work amid a lack of trains and sudden cancellations.

The issues with commuting are likely to be increasing the lure of working from home and depriving city centre shopping and hospitality of revenue from office workers.

Rail minister Wendy Morton has not guaranteed that services would return to pre-pandemic levels. People were now working differently in a “changing landscape” with people “starting to blend home and the office”, she said, adding it was now necessary to “balance the mix”.

“We are not where we were previously,” she said.

The government said it had spent more than £14bn supporting the railways after passenger numbers, and ticket revenue, collapsed during the Covid pandemic.

Hybrid working

Employment law in 2022: Eight action points for HR

Workers feel hybrid arrangements don’t suit their preferences

Reluctance to return to office felt by most businesses

High levels of staff absence because of Covid and the need to isolate also led to services being suspended and cancelled.

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents operators, said 19,500 trains were now running per day, which is equivalent to 79% of overall pre-Covid services. This was expected to rise to 85% by the end of the month it said, but current passenger demand was still below the capacity available, suggesting that rail companies felt little incentive to increase services.

The latest figures from the Department for Transport show that on Monday this week, passenger usage was about 64% of pre-pandemic levels.

Disruption to driver training caused by the pandemic and continuing high sickness and isolation rates were among further reasons for the lack of services.

Road traffic, meanwhile, has rebounded, with car journeys approaching pre-pandemic levels despite record high petrol prices of £1.48 per litre, new road closures and fines, speed traps and ubiquitous temporary traffic lights.

Business groups say train services need to be running to help local economies, but also to help cut pollution from car journeys.

Engineering – such as the closure of a large portion of London’s Northern Line tube – and utility works were adding further delays to journeys by all modes of transport, and incentivising workers to remain at home.

Raj Kandola, from the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, told the BBC: “We need an appropriate level of service to get people back to the office. At the same time, we need to get people get out of their cars if we are going to reduce the amount of congestion on our polluted road networks.”

Research carried out in 2021 suggested that 6.7% of the UK’s working population was now commuting by bike but this number is likely to have fallen over winter.

Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today


Browse more human resources jobs

Adam McCulloch
Adam McCulloch

Adam McCulloch is a freelance writer and production editor who has worked in sectors including travel (The Guardian), aviation (Flight International), agriculture (Farmers' Weekly), music (Jazzwise), theatre (The Stage) and social work (Community Care). He also works for a national newspaper and is the author of KentWalksNearLondon

previous post
Social mobility: employers vow to improve recruitment processes
next post
Dismissal of NatWest employee with cancer ‘tainted with discrimination’

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Are we happy now? New research Sugar-coats working...

6 May 2022

PwC staff to benefit from extended summer hours...

5 May 2022

Union announces ballot for ‘biggest rail strike’

20 Apr 2022

Commuters grapple with rail fare hike as Tube...

1 Mar 2022

Hybrid working: the tax implications to consider

11 Feb 2022

Working from home: businesses to allow staff into...

10 Dec 2021

Priority fuel access for key workers urged

28 Sep 2021

Commuting by train could be a boost for...

28 Sep 2021

Travel disruption: employers’ questions answered

27 Sep 2021

Get London buzzing again, businesses urge

5 Jul 2021
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+