New government work from home advice has had an immediate impact on road traffic and public transport

Figures published by location technology firm TomTom revealed the level of road congestion at 8am in major cities across England fell sharply compared with the previous two Mondays.

London’s congestion levels dropped from 72% on 29 November and 69% on 6 December to 60% today, reports Sky News.

Birmingham saw an even more dramatic fall in congestion levels, which dropped from 87% on 29 November to 64% last Monday and 55% today. Similarly, Manchester experienced a 36% drop in congestion levels today (53%) compared to 29 November (89%).

Congestion levels in the seaside city of Brighton have also steadily declined, from 59% on 29 November to 55% on 6 December to 44% today.

Transport for London (TfL) reported a fall in demand for Tube and bus travel services on Monday morning.

Around one million journeys were made on the London Underground between the start of service and 10am – an 18% reduction compared with 1.22 million during the same period a week ago.

Bus usage also saw a 5% decline – from 1.21 million journeys to 1.15 million over the same period.

Network Rail said the number of people using 16 major railway stations in England and Scotland between 6am and 9.30am this morning was down compared with last week.

It said the stations with the largest week-on-week reductions were Cannon Street (38%), Leeds Central (35%), Waterloo (34%), Kings Cross (28%), Liverpool Street (26%) and Euston (25%), Reading (25%) and Bristol (25%).

Other stations that saw a fall in usage include Birmingham New Street (24%), Charing Cross (23%), Paddington (20%), Manchester Piccadilly (20%), Liverpool Lime Street (17%), Edinburgh Waverley (11%), Victoria (8%) and Glasgow Central (7%).