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If you work from home, what would it take to lure you back into the office? If the answer to that question is ‘a free coffee’, well, we have the news you’ve been waiting for.
Off the back of data revealed from the TfL off-peak Friday fares trial, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and TfL are still looking for ways to encourage commuters back into the city – including offering free (or discounted) coffee for customers.
In a speech to the London Assembly’s budget committee, the mayor said no ideas are ‘off the table’ and is encouraging TfL to ‘pinch’ ideas from other cities to get the network flourishing to its pre-pandemic self.
These plans could potentially include giving away free coffees through the private sector or other incentivised schemes that work on a loyalty point basis, like supermarkets. Khan said:
‘One of the challenges I have given to TfL is to be innovative about what we can do not just to attract those public transport users who post pandemic haven’t come back, what more we can do in relation to supporting the business community, hospitality and so forth.
‘I’ve also encouraged them to speak to the private sector. Without naming names, why can’t TfL do a deal with somebody who provides coffees in relation to an incentive, the sort of scheme you have when you go to a supermarket in relation to points and so forth? Those are some of the things TfL are looking into.
‘They are also doing some research into whether other cities around the world doing something we can pinch, in relation to encouraging people to use public transport?’
Working from home has firmly earned its place in our post-pandemic world, with many Londoners choosing to max out their weekends by cutting out the time wasted on travel on a Friday.
The results of TfL’s Friday all-day off-peak fares trial, which ran from March to May 2024, were published in December but have only just been made public. The results revealed that reduced travel costs made no impact on increasing ridership numbers, and cost £24 million to cover losses made. Friday travel remains only at 73 percent of what it was before the pandemic.
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