It’s encouraging to see that rail use went up in the last three months of 2020 even though numbers are obviously still affected by the pandemic and lockdowns.

Figures from the independent rail regular show passenger numbers and the use of season tickets rose during the period from October to December last year.

The Office of Rail and Road says there were 140 million rail passenger journeys in Great Britain in that time – the number is up from 134 million in the previous quarter but way down on the 463 million journeys made in the same period in 2019.

The numbers of people using trains is slowly creeping up from the low point last Spring when it was estimated the number of journeys was the lowest since the middle of the 19th century.

I hope this trend continues with increased confidence in using trains as a safe form of public transport.

Much of the growth has come from London and the South East with commuters and office workers returning to their desks after long periods working from home.

The new hybrid ways of working which many companies are promoting will still mean passenger numbers won’t match those of pre-pandemic levels – but there is some hope that train travel will pick up again.

It’s going to be a long slow climb back from the low point.