City workers still commuting into London at 'around September levels' despite Government work from home advice

Canary Wharf saw a similar number of journeys last week as the previous week
PA

City workers who returned to the office over summer are continuing to commute in despite the latest Government advice to “work from home if you can”, latest Transport for London data suggests.

After a summer spent encouraging workers back to their desks, Boris Johnson announced a u-turn on September 22 and urged all British employees who are able to work effectively from home to do so.

It came at the outset of a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.

However, TfL data shows that the number of journeys made in and out of the Square Mile has remained at around the same level.

The numbers of journeys being made on the Tube are remaining around the same despite changing Government advice
PA

There were more than 203,000 “taps” in and out of City tube stations in the week to October 2 — around the same levels as the previous week.

Canary Wharf and Bank stations also saw a similar number of journeys made, with around 29,000 and 19,000 respectively.

Recent data showed that on September 23, the day after the Government said people should work from home "if they can", there were 1.41million journeys on the Tube.

In the week to the previous Wednesday, there had been 1.5million journeys.

Separate data published by the Department for Transport also showed there has been little immediate change in London commuting behaviour.

Journey levels remain far below pre-pandemic levels
PA

The latest Google Mobility Report data, released on October 4, found public transport use in Greater London is still 48 per cent below "normal levels".

Britain has seen far fewer staff return to offices than other major European cities, and large employers, such as NatWest and RBS, have told employees to expect to be working from home until 2021.

Last month accountancy firm PwC warned that remote working could cost the British economy £15.3bn a year due to the impact on jobs reliant on commuter footfall.

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