The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented changes to our daily lives and the transportation sector in East Lothian was no exception. This post analyses data on railway station exits in East Lothian to observe the impact and the ongoing recovery.
Key Observations:
- Pre-Pandemic Growth: Before the pandemic, railway station exits showed a steady upward trend, reflecting a growing reliance on rail travel attributable in part to vastly better service provision.
- Pandemic Plunge: In early 2020 the pandemic led to a catastrophic decline in station exits due to travel restrictions and the shift towards remote work.
- Slow Recovery: While there has been a recovery since, the number of station exits has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels. This suggests that travel and work patterns have been permanently altered.
- Potential Factors: Several factors may be contributing to the recovery pattern, one is that the steady year on year increase pre pandemic had already peaked in 2018, train capacity at peak times being a strong limiting factor, but the rise of remote work enabled by new technologies and a shifting economy are others. Changes in travel preferences and economic uncertainty may also be limiting growth.
The following analytical tool is provided live from the Office of Rail & Road. First select Scotland from the first dropdown. Next choose East Lothian (deselect all first though). Then home in on individual stations.
ELCRP has been charting the same figures annually as one its featured projects, since 2018 and have just updated the project a few days after we noticed the East Lothian Courier article ran a similar story.
