Impact of rail strike on footfall revealed
Figures on today’s retail footfall have shown that the number of visits to UK high streets is down 8.5% compared to the same day last week as consumers stay at home during the rail strike.
According to retail specialist Springboard, visits to shopping centres are also down, with a decline of 4.2%.
Until 1pm in central London, footfall had dropped by 27% week-on-week while in city centres outside of the capital it was 11.2% lower. As expected, market towns and outer London destinations fared better due to people staying in their local areas.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “The impact on train and tube strikes today on footfall is very clear to see , with a large proportion of people clearly working from home.”
Springboard’s figures also show that the drop in footfall in Central London and regional cities means that the gap from the 2019 footfall level has widened to -49.2% and -29.8% respectively, which is equivalent to levels recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown.
