One way system for Leeds railway station as industry braces for increase in passengers

Matt Rice, Route Director for Network Rail’s North and East Route, said since the coronavirus pandemic took hold Leeds had seen a drop of 95 per cent in passengers, as the country was told to stay home as much as possible.

But as Boris Johnson on Sunday said anyone not able to work from home should now try to return to work, Mr Rice said those in the industry had been preparing for a return to the rails for a number of weeks.

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Services across the rail network will be increased from around 50 per cent of the normal timetable to 70 per cent on Monday, as part of the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Mr Rice said the key advice was still to stay at home if possible and the preference was for people to travel by car, bicycle, or to walk.

But for those unable to, he said staff had been working hard to make Leeds station as safe as possible.

He said: “It’s important we keep in step with Government policy.”

The drop in passengers and services had, he said, allowed the industry to prepare for how they could return to transporting passengers safely when able to do so.

Already between five and eight per cent of passengers had returned, depending on the time of the day, since Mr Johnson’s announcement.

But he said there were still fewer than 1,000 people in the station a day compared to around 100,000 in normal times.

Mr Rice said: “Without any further announcements we will have a good opportunity on Monday to run more trains and test the measures we’ve put in place before the passenger numbers start ramping up.”

But he warned “there will be challenges” and added: “Just because there are trains we are not recommending people jumping on them at the moment.”

Station staff will be on hand to offer help - and will have access to all the protective equipment and hand sanitiser they need, Mr Rice said.

And he said that finding ways to allow people to travel safely could see trains running at only around 20 per cent full.

But the lockdown had presented opportunities, with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announcing on Thursday that £96m of upgrades on the North’s railways had been completed during lockdown.

And Mr Rice said even if more people chose to work at home after the crisis, improvements would still need to be made.

“So Bradford into Leeds,” he said. “Lots of people will still need to get on the train. There will still be a case for local investment, we will still find the need to keep investing to keep people comfortable.”

Industry body the Rail Delivery Group is urging passengers to avoid non-essential travel after recording a rise in journey planning of nearly a quarter this week.

Passengers are being asked to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations instead of using public transport.

The RDG warned that the capacity of trains will be restricted to as little as 10% of the normal number of people who travel.