In a letter to the Chancellor, the Commission’s chairman Sir John Armitt urged caution “over speculation about a flight from the cities post pandemic”. He also said that urban public transport investment including planning for transformative new projects “remains key to supporting future economic growth”.

Sir John also encouraged the Chancellor to continue with his stated agenda to give leaders of the country’s largest cities the funding and freedom they need to start work on their local infrastructure priorities to provide local stimulus and meet the needs of growing populations over the longer term.

Speculation continues about the effect that Covid-19 will have on long term patterns of movement in the UK, with many major employers considering whether they need to keep large city centre office space. Train companies across the country have gradually increased services this week, but the Rail Delivery Group which represents operators says there is space for as few as one tenth of the usual number of passengers.

It urges people to only use the trains if they really need to, to travel at quieter times and consider cycling and walking instead.

Elsewhere, new research this week claims that electric bicycles could offer employees a safe and sustainable means of travelling back to work after the virus subsides. The Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions, based at the University of Oxford, calls on authorities across the UK to introduce incentives to replace car journeys with e-bikes and says the greatest opportunities for their use are in rural and sub urban areas.

“The strategic potential of e-bikes as a mass transport option has been overlooked by policymakers so far,” said Dr Ian Philips who led the research. “As we emerge from the lockdown, e-bikes can be part of the solution to getting people safely mobile once again.”

Mobility data released by technology firm Apple and published by Government in its daily briefing to the nation on Monday shows that rates of driving and walking continue to rise steadily since lockdown restrictions began to ease, but that public transport use remains flat.

(Photograph: JUMP)