'Three days a week' rail season ticket considered in bid to lure commuters back to office part-time

Rail bosses hope to lure commuters back to the office for a few days a week without paying for a full season ticket

TRURO, ENGLAND - JUNE 15: Great Western Railway (GWR) staff member wears a face mask on a departing train at Truro station on June 15, 2020 in Truro, Cornwall. The British government have relaxed coronavirus lockdown laws significantly from Monday June 15, allowing zoos, safari parks and non-essential shops to open to visitors. Places of worship will allow individual prayers and protective face masks become mandatory on public transport. (Photo by Hugh R Hastings/Getty Images)

July 19, 2020 1:29 pm

Three-days-a-week season tickets are being considered by a railway firm to entice workers back into the office part-time, it has been reported.

The move aims to encourage workers living in London’s commuter belt back into the capital for part of the working week, after months of work-from-home arrangements.

Boris Johnson has urged companies to consider how to bring workers back into the office from August, and the Prime Minister is thought to be concerned about the effect working from home is having on city centre economies across the country.

Great Western Railway, which runs from London to hubs such as Oxford, Bath, and Reading, is considering a ticket that will allow people to travel three days out of seven – as many businesses are thought to be considering ways to bring workers back to the office for only part of the working week,

Part-time commuting

Traditional season tickets, valid for journeys seven days a week, can provide significant savings for regular commuters, but are not usually viable for workers who travel only a few days each week as the cost can be greater than simply buying regular tickets.

An empty London underground carriage on the Northern Line is seen as people avoid public transport during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain July 9, 2020. Picture taken July 9, 2020. REUTERS/Alexander Smith — The move aims to encourage workers living in London’s commuter belt back into the capital part time (Photo: REUTERS/Alexander Smith)

A spokesperson for the company told The Sunday Times: “Our research suggests commuters will travel, on average, into work three days a week, rather than the current five.”

Flexible ticketing

Rail firm Abellio, which runs franchises including Greater Anglia, is also to ask the Department for Transport to approve an e-ticket version of its flexible ticket offering, which gives a discount for tickets booked in blocks of 10.

Abellio’s Declan Whelan said the company wants to “respond swiftly to major changes in demand for train travel by offering new and simple ways to buy tickets”.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of independent watchdog Transport Focus, told the newspaper that the annual season ticket is “pretty much dead”.

He said: “A get-back-to-work message has got to be matched by the get-back-to-work rail products to underpin it. The only certainty about the future is that there will be less travel to work.”

The Department for Transport said it has been communicating with the rail industry to find flexible options that will be “as useful and convenient as possible”.