Nobina : Travel after the pandemic

'This concern is unwarranted. On the one hand, travel during the pandemic instead demonstrated the role and importance of public transport, and on the other hand, after a crisis, people quickly tend to want to return to previous travel patterns,' says Daniel Mohlin, Head of B2C at Nobina.

Similar experiences include the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2003, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US in 2001, and the terrorist attack on the London underground in 2005. These events created a fear of travelling by public transport, but travel returned quite rapidly to normal levels.

Data shows that public transport's share of total travel declined during the pandemic as people opted for other means of transport, such as bicycles or cars. The group that has mainly refrained from travelling by public transport is those with access to their own car. The share of those who regularly use public transport was unchanged. Studies suggest that remote working will remain common even after the pandemic. Few people though have this option. The main public transport users - school pupils, teachers and healthcare workers - must travel to their workplaces.