I’ve heard many people over the last few weeks use the phrase “light at the end of the tunnel” as lockdown eases and restrictions are lifted.

But perhaps it is more true of the rail industry than most with encouraging signs of a return to some sort of normality.

Rail companies have started running more services in response to the end of the “stay at home” message in England.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I have been monitoring and reporting on the Department for Transport’s statistics on transport use during the coronavirus. The figures for the first couple of weeks of April (which include the lifting of some travel restrictions) show encouraging signs with numbers up to about 30% of an equivalent pre-pandemic day.

My conversations with staff at my local railway station suggest passenger use is still low with many people continuing to work from home and only occasionally taking the train to an office as part of the new “hybrid” way of working. Certainly I haven’t seen many people on the trains when I have been out and about – which means social distancing can be achieved without too much trouble as passengers spread out anyway.

More services, enhanced cleaning, social distancing, visible enforcement – all these measures should help to inspire confidence in rail travel once again. And that light will grow ever bigger as the rail industry emerges fully from the dark tunnel of a year of lockdowns.