In a boost to office working, 76% of people polled said they regularly used the train, bus or tram throughout October.

According to an analysts at transport firm TUBR this is up 34% on six months ago when only 42% of those polled said they were regularly taking a trip via public transport.

Commenting on the rise, TUBR’s co-founder Dash Tabor said: “These findings show more than three quarters of people are now more confident about using public transport post the lifting of Covid restrictions compared to less than half of passengers six months ago.

Transport providers and the Government now need to capitalise on this by introducing measures which further boost people’s confidence about using our public transport network.

“Work from home may be right for many – but it is not for all and making public transport safer to use is a key way of getting more people back to work safely.”

The survey also highlights other findings which appear to indicate office-work is making a comeback.
Six months ago around 27% of the 1,000 passengers surveyed by TUBR admitted they “rarely” used public transport due to fears about contracting Covid-19.

But that has now reduced dramatically – with just 2% saying they avoided it entirely.
Economists say getting more people out of home-offices and back to work will help provide a much needed boost to crisis-hit towns and city-centres who have lost billions through the pandemic.

Many experts say that this could be further boosted if the Government started to impose stricter rules on mask-wearing.

Currently there are no mandatory rules in place in England – although the Mayors of London, Liverpool and Manchester are all encouraging commuters to wear masks on public transport.

And last weekend Rishi Sunak told Andrew Marr he wears a mask when taking the Tube.
Ms Tabor added: “Although it is an emotive topic, the Government’s refusal to bring back mandatory face masks may well be holding more people back from returning to use public transport. All our research over the past year indicates passengers would be more likely to use the train, tram or bus if they knew fellow passengers were wearing masks. The fear of contracting Covid-19 remains a genuine barrier for many in making the decision about where they work from and there’s no doubt mask-wearing on our train network has fallen off a cliff since the Summer.”