Public leave transport network open to key workers

The number of domestic rail journeys being made is down 95% compared with 12 months ago, according to Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris.

Speaking at the House of Commons Transport Select Committee (remotely) on April 7, he said statistics for the previous day revealed that daily footfall at Network Rail stations was down 94% and that Eurostar journeys were down by 99% compared with the same day in 2019.

Comparing that with other forms of transport, HeatonHarris said UK air traffic is down 92% and that on the roads overall traffic volumes are down 71%.

He added that London Underground was carrying 94% fewer passengers than the same day last year.

“The public are very much taking heed of the messages given, leaving our transport networks open to key workers and freight movements,” he told Transport Select Committee MPs.

“We are using the opportunity of reduced rail timetables to move more freight across the rail network, to help keep the country supplied with goods.”

Asked if the decline was sufficient in keeping with Government’s self-isolating policy, Heaton-Harris said: “I would like to think it is sufficient. Obviously, we want to keep key workers’ ability to move around as fluid as possible, and for them to be able to travel on public transport with appropriate social distancing measures.

“I have been in contact with individual managing directors of the train operating companies. I was talking to the East Midlands franchise train operator today, for example, and was told their busiest train yesterday had seven carriages and 36 people on it. It is vital to keep services open.”

Heaton-Harris spoke of the situation in Milan (where the lockdown is more stringent and people are fined for being outside with no sufficient reason) in comparison with London, explaining: “The metro has been operating with between 25% and 33% of its usual passenger capacity, because there are so many key workers who do need to get to where they are going. So yes, I think people are taking heed.”