The Government intends to relax its “work from home” message from June 21 and will introduce new flexi-tickets to help persuade people to return to their places of work. These can be used two to three times a week and will save commuters hundreds of pounds. The Prime Minister is keen to get workers back to their offices in order to help revive the high street economy, which has been devastated by the pandemic.
He told a rail industry conference on Friday that the public would crave face-to-face contact once again.
“In a few short months, if all goes to plan, we in the UK are going to be reopening our economy,” he said.
“And then, believe me, the British people will be consumed once again with their desire for the genuine face-to-face meeting that makes all the difference to the deal or whatever it is.”
A Department for Transport (DfT) source told the Daily Telegraph that the flexible rail season tickets will be on sale in England “in the first half” of this year.
The source added: “”We have written to all rail operators to ask that they begin immediate work on developing a flexible season ticket.
“These new flexible season tickets, reflecting modern working lives, will be introduced across England this year, available to all operators overseen by DfT.
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Currently, the number of rail travellers is around 14 percent of 2019 levels.
Last week the head of Goldman Sachs described working from home as an “aberration” and expected offices to be full of workers again soon.
However, tech giants like Microsoft and Facebook have said that they are prepared to offer their employees the option to continue working from home.
