The corona crisis continues. We are all fed up by now, but have no other choice. Where we still hoped last summer that the crisis would be well over at the beginning of this year, we now wonder whether it will ever go away at all and whether it will all get better as everyone gets a vaccination. We also wonder whether we can go on holiday abroad this year. First we need to get out of our recently extended lockdown. And maybe we'll get a curfew soon too.
The Dutch Railways is severely affected by the consequences of the corona crisis. The number of travelers in 2020 is 45 percent of the number of travelers in 2019. The question is how things will go in the future. NS reports on their website that they have conducted a survey together with TU Delft among more than 23.000 travelers. That research shows that one in six travelers expects to travel less by train after the corona crisis. More people expect to work from home or have already purchased a means of transport other than the train.
“People who travel by train for their work make up half of our total income,” said Tjalling Smit, Board of Directors of NS. “If this group already starts working from home one day a week, that immediately means ten percent less turnover for NS. Our margins are limited, so such a blow is difficult for us to absorb. ”
Commuters think they will travel to work about three days a week after the corona crisis and 8 percent of the commuters surveyed think they will no longer travel to work at all after the crisis. After the crisis, Tuesday and Thursday appears to be popular among commuters. Mondays are the least popular.
Monday ends in third place. “There is a real challenge here. After the crisis, we should no longer fall back into the old habit of all getting on the train at the same time, ”says Smit. “It is important to make agreements with companies, schools and other organizations about days on which people travel to school and the office to avoid busy peak days”.
About 75 percent of the surveyed recreational travelers think they will resume their old travel behavior after the corona crisis. After the corona crisis, about 30 percent of this group thinks they even travel more by train to make up for all the delayed trips.
