There has been a significant rise in the number of people travelling by bus since working restrictions were lifted.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle told Tynwald that since certain sectors of the economy reopened, namely builders and gardeners, that the passenger numbers have risen by about a quarter.

After the Covid-19 lockdown began, it was reported that bus journey had fallen by about 90% from about 100,000 to around 10,000.

Rob Callister (Onchan) asked the Chief Minister if the bus timetable would be changing to reflect more people going to work.

When the lockdown began, buses were put on to a ’winter Sunday’ schedule, which reflected how few people were using the buses.

Mr Callister told the Chief Minister that people are trying to get to work but that ’the timetable doesn’t take this into consideration’.

Mr Quayle said: ’I know we have seen a 20-30% increase in the usage of buses in the last few days.

’I’m sure the Minister for Infrastructure [Ray Harmer] will be working with his team and coming up with a revised timetable as the honourable member rightly mentions, to take into account the increase of usage as we go forward.’

As the island has moved to what the government terms the second level of the pandemic ’Stay Safe’ buses are due to run on a reduced basis.

The Stay Safe document released on Monday says that residents can ’take public transport where necessary, taking care to stay two metres away from others’.

The third level, ’The "new normal"’ would see transport open, but no detail as to what this means in practice is provided.