Commuters in Horsham lead the charge back to central London

Since March when lockdown restrictions first began to ease the number of people travelling from the town to the City of London and Holborn has increased by 234 per cent.

In comparison Hastings increased by 90.6 per cent, Brighton and Hove by 62.3 per cent and Eastbourne by 50.9 per cent.

The research analysed the number of week-day journeys into the capital from towns with more than 10,000 residents located within 60 miles of Greater London, covering more than 177,588 travellers. It measured trips to the City of London and Holborn, which are home to hundreds of the capital’s office buildings and workplaces.

It was carried out by Huq Industries, an alternative data research business. Huq’s extensive dataset of real-time population mobility data, comprised of 1bn+ mobile geo-location data-points daily, is used by retailers, investors and the public sector to measure footfall across a range of consumer, business and industrial settings.

Conrad Poulson, chief executive officer at Huq Industries, said: “Although many people are continuing to work from home, the siren call of the post-lockdown return to the office has been heard by employers and employees alike. Many are keen to get back to some level of normality, which includes commuting to work – even those companies that are moving towards ‘hybrid working’ models with some staff at home and some at the office.

“The Home Counties commuter belt is seeing some significant rises in outbound traffic, although it’s still not back to pre-pandemic levels. But as more employers re-open their offices, we could well see the rush hour on road and rail start to re-emerge.”