Commuting goes long-distance and high-tech

LONDON - Quick and easy air travel in the next 10 years will lead to workers moving from suburban Britain to lively European cities such as Barcelona and Dubrovnik, a report predicts.

The Thomson Future Forum report says more than a million Britons will be working abroad by the middle of the next decade, creating a commuter belt stretching from Marrakesh in north Africa to Tallinn in the Baltic.

Instead of commuting daily by train, workers will be expected go into the office in Britain only once or twice a month. They will stay in touch with their companies by using the internet and tele-conferencing.

When these international workers do travel, the advent of "chip-and-pin" flying will enable them to check in instantly with a single swipe of an identity card - with a fingerprint as proof of identity.

Frequent travellers may even have an identity microchip implanted under their fingernails.

To cope with the rise of international commuters, the report expects companies will buy small apartments to accommodate foreign-based staff during their visits home.

The report was compiled by a panel of experts including academics specialising in future studies and environmentalism and chaired by Nick Middleton, a fellow in physical geography at Oxford University.

He said: "In as little as 10 years, the way we travel and the reasons for travel will be vastly changed."

The rapid advance of technology and global communications networks would make international commuting highly desirable and viable.

Another prediction from the report is that employers will improve the work-life balance by giving workers more annual leave in return for their doing some work during some of those days off.

Leave would be divided into "hard" and "soft" holidays.

During a "soft" holiday, an employee would work a few hours, but during a "hard" holiday they would be completely off-duty.

- INDEPENDENT