Returning to work - but at home, or at the office? Effect on travel

[whole diary]

[stuving]

Can't believe I'm quoting the Daily Mail

Britain's rail companies will slash one in ten services as post-lockdown passenger numbers plummet.

The new autumn train timetables will be phased in from today with services operating at 10 per cent below the levels before the pandemic.

This will leave passengers with longer wait times and see trains that ran hourly cut to running every two hours. 

[snip]

The introduction to an item on the same thing on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) lunchtime news was "Back on track - train services return to near normal pre-pandemic capacity", later quantified as around 90%.

So, do you see your glass (First or Standard) as:
1)  90% FULL or
2)  10% EMPTY!!!!

[broadgage]

If working from home becomes popular, I foresee a new growth industry in ensuring that these new workplaces are "compliant" with existing rules and regulations.
Data security has been mentioned, as has the prohibition on smoking in most workplaces, and tenancy agreements that may prohibit use of a rented home for work.

Here are a few more pots of gold for consultants.

PAT testing, how long before the elfansafety require that all electrical appliances in the home workplace require testing by an approved firm and certificates issued. (we can arrange this for a competitive price)

Water hygiene. Is YOUR domestic hot water system fully compliant with all requirements and recommendations regarding the control of legionnaires disease ? Do you have a water hygiene log book ? (we can handle this for you)

Emergency lighting. Does your home workplace have emergency lighting that complies with all regulations and requirements ? Is it tested monthly ? with a full duration discharge test annually ? can you prove  this.
Is alternative emergency lighting available for when the batteries in the main emergency lighting have been discharged for test purposes. (our fully approved sub-contractor can handle this for you)

Pest control. Is the home workplace free of pests ? Do you have regular inspections to confirm this ? Are the records available for inspection. (we can perform these inspections for a nominal £59-89+vat, extermination extra)

Lifting and hoisting equipment. Is this regularly inspected by an approved insurance company ? (if you have no such equipment, we can issue a simple certificate confirming this, from £86.42, plus VAT^▸ (Value Added Tax).)

Fire alarm, it is unlikely that domestic smoke detectors will be considered suitable. We will be pleased to quote for an approved system. There is NO CHARGE for our survey.

[grahame]

If working from home becomes popular, I foresee a new growth industry in ensuring that these new workplaces are "compliant" with existing rules and regulations. ....

[snip]

You are taking the p*** there - whilst these things are important, you much first consider:

* Accident book and approved workplace safety aid kit, with appropriate emergency training so that you know how to resuscitate yourself should you need it

* Accessibility for all modifications should any deliveries be made by a person who requires them, including modifications to your loo or a fitting of one on the ground floor should that person be caught short

* Food hygiene training and inspection on an annual basis by the local authority should you wish to eat at your desk while working

* Conformance of your chair to HSE^▸ (Health and Safety Executive) seating at work regulations

[CyclingSid]

Conformance of your chair to HSE^▸ (Health and Safety Executive) seating at work regulations

Back pain is a high cause of NHS usage.

Food hygiene training and inspection on an annual basis by the local authority should you wish to eat at your desk while working

Food poisoning is also a use of NHS resources.

Not so much regulation, but the application of common sense.

I do understand that most H&S^▸ (Health and Safety) regulation appeared due to the lack of common sense.

[Robin Summerhill]

BG^▸ (Brake Gangway (carriage)) appears to have missed one (serious) fundamental point, which is that some people have worked from home from time immemorial. People with cottage industries making anything from straw bonnets to jewellery; cabinet makers or whatever in their sheds; script writers and authors and so on, to say nothing of the professional people such as accountants, lawyers, consultants etc, all of whom are examples. There will of course be many others.

Special regulations already apply in some cases, for example the rating system specifically excludes some of these people from paying business rates.

There is also the little practical matter of enforcement. Here is a post that I made on another forum when the smoking at work legislation first arrived on the Statute Book in 2007:


Bloke A is self-employed, a smoker and works mainly at home with occasional visits to client’s premises.

Blokess B is married to bloke A and is also self-employed. She normally works on client’s premises but works from home about 15 hours a week. She has her own desk in bloke A’s office. Blokess B is also a smoker.

Question – leaving the strict interpretation of the smoking at work legislation to one side, how many ashtrays do you think there are in Bloke A’s office?

[grahame]

Picking up from another thread ... this struck me while I was very busy on other things, coming back to comment now.

There is no such thing as a 'new normal' it's just media speak to cause fear and panic. We didn't have a 'new normal' after the 2008 recession, nor after Swine Flu. Life changes as things evolve, tha's just general life.

The wording "new normal" is indeed a convenient label for the media.   Intended "to cause fear and panic" but an appreciation that there will be things in 2021 or 2023 which are different to things were in 2017 or 2019.  Life does indeed "change as things evolve" and always has done, call it "general life" if you don't want to label it.

But ... I heard it said, and agree with the sentiment that, over the second quarter of this year, there were an underlying year's worth of changes each month.  So whilst things changed from 2017 to 2019 in general life, the changes from 2019 to 2021 in life will be far more significant - perhaps things will have changed in 2 years as much as they have typically done in 10. And then they will revert to the same level of change in the following 2 years.  So - a step change / a leap over the current year or two, with less dramatic changes expected thereafter.

My crystal ball, though, has an ill-defined time axis and things may remain very changeable through 2021;  perhaps I should have looked forward to 2022 and compared it to 2024?  My crystal ball has also reacted for the purposes of this look ahead to the shake caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and may not have fully factored in changes from other events - climate change, resource shortage, the struggle for equal rights and fair treatment and quality of life, contrasted to the power play of dictatorships and interests of embedded positions.

So ... looking ahead ... a BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) article

Nearly a third of people should still be working from homes, even when coronavirus restrictions have eased, says the Welsh Government.

[snip]

Deputy Minister for Transport and Economy, Lee Waters [said] "We believe many people will want to continue to work remotely in the longer term and this could be a step-change in the way we work in Wales."

Obvious effect on passenger numbers, long term.   But also on the pattern of when (in the day and week) they travel and where (source and destination) they travel.   The commute in 2022 and the business trip will still be there but a different pattern. The social fabric effects ... let's see ... why live in Pangbourne and keep a second home in Penally when you can live all the time in Penally and make a weekly trip to the office?   Or why live in Reading and not Roche any longer, or Maidenhead rather than Minehead?

For pragmatic / practical purposes, the 2020 holiday was taken in Bournemouth not Bodrum if at all, and that may have been a rediscovery.  In the future, a weekend trip to Barcelona replaced by a weekend trip to Blackpool and a lifetime trip to the Mauritius gives way to a trip to Mallaig, onward to Skye not the Seychelles.  The Costal Del Sol replaced by the Cornish Riviera once again.  Looe not Lisbon, Falmouth not Faro.

Edit (15.9.2020) to add That last sentence sparked a discussion which has been split (at member's requests) into a separate thread at http://www.passenger.chat/24018 on returning to leisure trips and their potential new pattern

[ellendune]

Obviously the Deputy Minster was looking particularly at Wales where increased homeworking is an opportunity to revitalise the economy of many of the more rural parts of Wales.  However this applies equally to parts of the Rest of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). 

[Sixty3Closure]

Obviously the Deputy Minster was looking particularly at Wales where increased homeworking is an opportunity to revitalise the economy of many of the more rural parts of Wales.  However this applies equally to parts of the Rest of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). 

They'll need to come up with a more coherent broadband strategy than they have currently. When I'm in Wales I'm in a rural but not especially remote area and connectivity is a challenge. The traditional copper wire ADSL gets me around 1 MBs if no one else on the cable route is using it as capacity is shared. Initially we were told we couldn't even have a landline.

I've had satellite which ok but expensive and very constrained on data. Now using 4G with an antenna on the roof but that wasn't cheap to install and only recently available. There are various grants but there're not much use if the service isn't there or only meet install but not running costs. I've lost count of the number of rural broadband schemes we've seen most of which fail to deliver. Because of storm damage the phone cables/poles are replaced on a regular basis but Openreach refuse to increase capacity in the boxes or even run fibre along the poles which the engineers tell us is cheaper.

[CyclingSid]

In case it hasn't been posted elsewhere; Sir Martin Sorrell thinks the government ought to be doing more to encourage use of public transport.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/sir-martin-sorrell-government-blame-reluctance-return-offices/

[eightonedee]

I shall try to get back on topic in my next post  Grin

Moderators. - is this a thread split moment?

There's a whole subject, namely  - Will Covid 19 lead to a revival of the domestic tourist/holiday industry and what effect might this have on rail travel?

I think there's more to say on this subject......

[eightonedee]

In case it hasn't been posted elsewhere; Sir Martin Sorrell thinks the government ought to be doing more to encourage use of public transport.

.....and the views expressed by the TUC show exactly why the government will be reluctant to do so. I don't think I would risk being accused of forcing people back to work in potentially unsafe workplaces because some aging advertising executive has sounded off on LBC.

[grahame]

THIS IS an almost-duplicated cross post as I have split "returning to work" from "returning to holiday and leisure trips".  This is the thread about returning to work.

I shall try to get back on topic in my next post  Grin

Moderators. - is this a thread split moment?

There's a whole subject, namely  - Will Covid 19 lead to a revival of the domestic tourist/holiday industry and what effect might this have on rail travel?

I think there's more to say on this subject......

Oh goodness eightonedee - what a huge challenge you have set!    The subjects of a returning pattern for commuters and a returning pattern for leisure travellers are different but have significant overlap as do may of the posts that are (or were) here.  And the split facility is an "exclusive or" one ... either a post goes into the new topic or stays - doesn't go to both!

I considered simply "flushing" a new, catch-all title through the whole old thread but that would have left us with a mammoth topic including ...
* Changing travel patterns for commuting (journeys to main place of employment)
* Changing travel patterns for holidays (journeys to places to stay for pleasure)
* Changes of travel patterns for other reasons - business meetings, day trips, education ...
and
* the effects of all the pattern changes on public transport provision needed

They intermesh, they are in the same basket.  But there are also significant divergences (such as the effect or weather)

This thread is at http://www.passenger.chat/23947 - COMMUTING to normal place of work
New thread is at http://www.passenger.chat/24018 - GOING ON HOLIDAY
And perhaps others should be started for day trips, and for the combination effect on needed and desired service patterns

[bradshaw]

From this morning?s SWT^▸ (South West Trains) travel check

06:07 Salisbury to Exeter St Davids due 08:22
Facilities on the 06:07 Salisbury to Exeter St Davids due 08:22.
Service full and standing from Honiton.

Getting back to normal?