West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said public transport operators will struggle to break even on their services I.
The subway mayor wants to end car commuting in the West Midlands to make up for the tariff shortage.
According to surveys, less than one in five workers wants to return to the office five days a week after the pandemic.
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Major employers such as PwC, Lloyds, Deutsche Bank and Virgin Media are working on plans for a “hybrid” work model in which employees only come to the office for part of the week.
In response to changing demand, transport companies are introducing new ticket options.
In September, Coventry launched flexible bus tickets that allow customers to travel 13 days a month. West Midlands Trains has introduced a similar ticket that entitles its holders to 10 round-trip journeys within a calendar month.
“By the time this whole flexible office issue comes up, we’ve already changed our ticketing to reflect that,” Mayor Street said I.
However, this is a major problem for public transport operators. Without a large number of daily commuters who provide the bulk of the tariffs, public transport operators on Mayor Street are facing a funding gap.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult,” he said, as finances add up with more people working from home.
It’s a problem that transportation companies are grappling with across the country. In Greater Manchester, 20 percent of commuters are expected to stay at home after the pandemic, while London’s transport executives are facing a funding crisis and making plans for underground and bus connections to cope with a “remote working revolution”.
In the West Midlands, Mayor Street plans to solve the problem by targeting drivers. The goal is to eradicate the idea that the car is the “standard” choice for commuting, he said I.
“I’m not against cars as such,” he said. “You will still be absolutely critical for many trips. But they don’t have to be what you consider the regular commute standard. ”
Convincing people to leave their cars at home and take trains or buses to commute will replace lost income from hybrid work and tackle emissions, congestion and air pollution, he said.
The West Midlands are using Whitehall funding to study how people can be moved from private cars to public transport. In Coventry, a pioneering scrapping program is offering drivers £ 3,000 mobility credits for bus and train journeys in exchange for dropping off a polluting car.
In the meantime, a two-year test is being conducted with the University of Warwick to test whether similar transport options such as e-scooters, a car club and an on-demand bus service can replace the use of cars on and around the Warwick University campus.