Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 06:55 29 Mar 2024
- Bus plunges off South Africa bridge, killing 45
- Easter getaway begins with flood alerts in place
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
29th Mar (1913)
Foundation of National Union or Railwaymen (*)

Train RunningCancelled
06:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington
07:00 Bedwyn to Newbury
07:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
07:49 Bedwyn to Newbury
08:13 Newbury to Bedwyn
08:46 Bedwyn to Newbury
09:54 Bedwyn to Newbury
10:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
11:29 Newbury to Bedwyn
11:57 Bedwyn to Newbury
12:52 Bedwyn to Newbury
Short Run
04:54 Plymouth to London Paddington
05:23 Hereford to London Paddington
05:33 Plymouth to London Paddington
05:55 Plymouth to London Paddington
06:00 Bedwyn to London Paddington
06:37 Plymouth to London Paddington
06:48 Exeter St Davids to Exmouth
07:03 London Paddington to Paignton
07:38 Bristol Temple Meads to Penzance
07:40 Bristol Temple Meads to Westbury
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington
10:35 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids
Delayed
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance
05:03 Penzance to London Paddington
06:05 Penzance to London Paddington
07:10 Penzance to London Paddington
08:03 London Paddington to Penzance
08:15 Penzance to London Paddington
09:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
09:37 London Paddington to Paignton
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
11:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 29, 2024, 07:06:54 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[82] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[76] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[74] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
[67] Return of the BRUTE?
[57] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[46] 2024 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Remote working: How cities might change if we worked from home more  (Read 895 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40691



View Profile WWW Email
« on: June 01, 2020, 09:06:51 »

From The BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Quote
Remote working: How cities might change if we worked from home more

For many of us, our homes have become our workplaces over the past few months, and a full return to the office still appears a remote prospect.

Major tech companies say they are open to their staff working from home permanently. Employees are coming to realise remote working is not only possible but, in some cases, preferable. A shift to a new way of working might already be under way.

Such a shift could have profound implications on our home life, and by extension on the life of our towns and cities: almost a quarter of all office space in England and Wales is in central London alone.

To understand those implications, we brought together four experts on city life, all of whom were working from home.

And by further extension the effect on public transport and climate change?
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Bmblbzzz
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4256


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2020, 10:17:31 »

I don't think office working will disappear. It's still beneficial to have people in one room (or building) together and for them to get to know each other. But we might work two days in the office and three days at home, or a week here, a week there. Different patterns will obviously suit different jobs and businesses. Therefore we'll still have similar commuting patterns from residential to commercial areas, but fewer people at a time. We might also have smaller offices, freeing up a lot of buildings for other uses such as residential, which will of course alter commuting routes. If you live in the commercial zone, because it's also the residential zone, you probably won't use transport (other than feet or maybe bike or similar) so much. And if a move to smaller offices also means a move to offices in previously non-commercial areas, that's another change, perhaps to more dispersed commuting routes (so some people might be commuting from their flat in an former office building in the city centre to their office in a former residential area on the outskirts, but only a few days a week or month).
Logged

Waiting at Pilning for the midnight sleeper to Prague.
Robin Summerhill
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1145


View Profile Email
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2020, 10:22:05 »

We've had a few threads that have at lleast touched on this topic, so in a way it is old news.

At the moment, nobody knows for certain what the future will bring in terms of home working, or indeed the use of public transport in general.

These are not matters that government can directly affect by any sensible law, edict, instruction or guidance, because it will come down to countless thousands of individual decisions being made by employers and employees all over the country.

In three words, wait and see.

In a few more words, but in a way related to the topic, today we find ourselves with a relaxed lockdown. How much diffrence will this actually make, I wonder, to the members of this forum? I'll hazard a guess of "not much" but I'd be happy to have that guess shot down in flames!
Logged
Red Squirrel
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5190


There are some who call me... Tim


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2020, 11:01:38 »

From The BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Quote
Remote working: How cities might change if we worked from home more

For many of us, our homes have become our workplaces over the past few months, and a full return to the office still appears a remote prospect.

Major tech companies say they are open to their staff working from home permanently. Employees are coming to realise remote working is not only possible but, in some cases, preferable. A shift to a new way of working might already be under way.

Such a shift could have profound implications on our home life, and by extension on the life of our towns and cities: almost a quarter of all office space in England and Wales is in central London alone.

To understand those implications, we brought together four experts on city life, all of whom were working from home.

And by further extension the effect on public transport and climate change?

Good questions. Here are some more!

I presume all of us on this forum would wish for better rail services, and the presumption has been that more people using trains helps make the case for this.

But what does 'better' mean? More inter-city services? Better high-frequency local services? Nicer catering and comfort? Do we want more trains to existing destinations, or more choices of destination? These different definitions of 'better' are sometimes in mutual conflict. As we have seen in Bristol recently, an increase in frequency of London trains led to fewer paths for local services.

Meanwhile, a virtuous circle has begun in cities around the world. Because there are fewer cars on the road, roads are safe and the air is much, much cleaner. Hordes of people are discovering how easy it is to get around on a bicycle or on foot. Some of these people previously used public transport. Is it a bad thing if they never do so again?

Is 'bums on seats' the wrong metric when planning transport investment? Should we instead set a target of percentage of population within 10 km of a station, or 1 km of a bus? If we start to see sustainable transport as a right, this could help encourage people to abandon the burden of car ownership.

No doubt there will be some who will want to make more room for private cars, seeing them as a 'safe' way to get around. It is hard to see how this could be reconciled with the need to allow other road users the social distance they need. In a time of economic stringency, the financial (and political) cost of adapting cities to accommodate more cars will surely rule it out.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2020, 11:15:58 by Red Squirrel » Logged

Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.
Bmblbzzz
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4256


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2020, 13:21:23 »

Meanwhile, a virtuous circle has begun in cities around the world. Because there are fewer cars on the road, roads are safe and the air is much, much cleaner. Hordes of people are discovering how easy it is to get around on a bicycle or on foot. Some of these people previously used public transport. Is it a bad thing if they never do so again?
Just picking up on this point. Yes, the air was much cleaner for a while. But it already smells much dirtier than it did at the beginning of April. And the background traffic noise is pretty much how it was in February.
Logged

Waiting at Pilning for the midnight sleeper to Prague.
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page