Students are being asked to travel home during this window to reduce the risk of transmission of coronavirus and protect their families and communities.

The Department for Transport has announced that students who had already booked train tickets to travel home for Christmas before the announcement of the student travel window can now rebook their tickets to travel between 3 to 9 December without paying additional fees.

Students who bought an ‘advance’ ticket before 11 November for a date of travel after 9 December can now change their ticket to travel during the window without paying a change of journey fee of up to £10.

Flexible tickets such as ‘off peak’ or ‘anytime’ can already be rebooked to another date without payment of an admin fee.

The window from 3 to 9 December, coinciding with the end of the winter term, ensures that students can return home once the national lockdown restrictions have been lifted whilst minimising the risk of transmission of the virus to others.

Grant Shapps, transport secretary, said: “Students will be eager to be at home with their families after an unprecedented autumn term, and travelling during this window enables them to do so as safely as possible.

“By waiving change of journey fees, they can now rebook their tickets without being left out of pocket.”

The move is an extension of temporary measures introduced on 26 October allowing train operators to temporarily waive the usual change of journey admin fee for advance tickets where passengers couldn’t travel due to local Covid-19 restrictions.