Give A Fair Deal For The Millions Who Have To Commute

The Prime Minister thinks it is time for us to stop cowering at home and to be brave enough to return to the office. But what a way to encourage us – for the Government to announce it is jacking up rail fares once more, by 1.6 per cent in January.

- Ross Clark

It is one more incentive for commuters to try to persuade their employers to allow them to work from home permanently. Few people seem to be rushing back to their desks. On Monday, passenger journeys on national rail services were running at just 23 per cent of the level they were at the beginning of March. Tube journeys are just 30 per cent of what they were then and bus journeys across the country just 41 per cent.

What a luxury it is not to worry about the cost or reliability of commuter services. White-collar workers may never return to the office in the numbers they did before the pandemic, especially with technology making it possible to meet up with colleagues remotely via Zoom and other services.

But there is a very large number of people who cannot work from home. You can’t, say, drive a bulldozer or work a crane from your spare bedroom. Nor can you serve diners without being in the restaurant, or assemble cars via your laptop.