Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on long term rail passenger demand of the covid-19 outbreak on (a) suburban (b) inter-city rail, (c) light rail and (d) underground systems.
This crisis will have a long-lasting impact on our society – but it is too early to predict what that may mean in practice. There are a number of factors that will determine the demand for these modes of transport, including when lockdown restrictions are lifted, the nature of social distancing guidelines put in place going forward, and how people’s attitudes towards travel may have changed.
In the short term, we are working to ensure essential services are still running, and goods and passengers can get where they are needed most