UK: South Essex to London train operator c2c reports that it has seen a ‘robust resurgence’ in commuter travel, with passenger volumes now at more than 80% of pre-2020 levels despite the growth in working from home which was spurred by the pandemic.
This has brought changes in the way pasengers pay, accelerated when pay-as-you-go ticketing using contactless bank cards and mobile devices was launched across the entire c2c network. Season tickets accounted for over 40% of c2c journeys in 2019, but this has now fallen to around 15%.
‘We launched PAYG with contactless ticketing in February 2025 and it has been incredibly successful with over one million taps since the launch’, c2c’s Commercial & Interim Customer Director Eleni Jordan said on October 9. ’This provides an easy-to-use solution which offers speed and convenience for every journey, with c2c seeing over 60 000 additional contactless taps each week as a result.
‘We realised the challenges of 2025 are different to those that existed before 2020, which is why we have had to evolve to a new way of thinking and embrace the change in customer needs.’
