The UK has seen strong economic recovery in recent months post-pandemic, with industries across the nation returning to near regular levels of pre-pandemic traffic. The British rail sector has shown a steady return in passenger influx, despite the ongoing RMT action that has been disrupting the regular operations across stations throughout the nation.
This week, the Department for Transport (DfT) has published its figures from a recent study analysing rail passenger numbers, highlighting the aforementioned industry growth where national rail passenger numbers have reached a new post-pandemic milestone. Throughout the seven days stretch between Saturday 6th August to Friday 12th August, 93-95% of pre-Covid passenger levels were hit every single day of the week.
Darren Caplan, Chief Executive of the Railway Industry Association, said:
“Given all the industrial action of recent weeks, and that the month of August is the traditional summer season when many go on holiday, it is astonishing that we are now getting 95% of pre-Covid passenger levels reached on the national rail network, and in a week where over 93% was recorded every single day of the week. This welcome milestone has been hit less than six months since pandemic restrictions started being relaxed and is a clear vote of confidence in UK rail.
“One must assume it is only a matter of time before we are back to 100% of pre-Covid levels. Given this, RIA and our members once again urge the Treasury and policymakers and influencers not to base 30-year programmes and forecasts for the future of rail on the abnormal period of the pandemic, but instead to plan increased investment for the growth in capacity we are going to need in the years ahead.”
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