THE pandemic has seen a vast drop in rail passenger journeys and if prepandemic service levels are to be maintained, it is essential that the number of travellers rises quickly as restrictions are reduced. It has been suggested by some that the operators should launch cheap fare offers to tempt the public back.
Forty years ago the country was in the grip of a severe economic depression and then the railways took initiatives to try to fill the trains, one such being the offer in late 1980 of £1 tickets for holders of Senior Citizen Railcards to travel anywhere in the country after 09.30.