Train admin fees have been waived for students travelling home for Christmas this year.
Transport Secretary Grants Shapps announced on Twitter that the decision was made to "ensure flexibility and safety" on journeys.
Admin fees will now not be charged on any journeys between December 3 and 9 meaning students avoid a charge of up to £10.
Posting about the decision, Mr Shapps said: "STUDENT TRAVEL WINDOW: 3-9 December.
"To ensure flexibility and safety, we're waiving change of journey fees on rail tickets so students coming home for Christmas can rebook to travel during the window without paying fees of up to £10."
On the government website, it was explained that students are being asked to travel home during this window to reduce the risk of transmission of coronavirus and protect their families and communities.
But Shapps has also asked the general public to consider now travelling over Christmas at all.
The Westminster Government and the devolved administrations are expected to announce later this week how coronavirus restrictions will be eased to allow people across the UK to spend the festive period together.
But with major engineering work across Britain's railways and capacity constraints to enable social distancing, Mr Shapps urged people to "look very carefully at the transport route they take" when planning Christmas trips.
He told BBC Breakfast: "We have got to understand there are limitations to the (rail) network caused by, for example, things like the need on some trains to pre-book tickets at this time, in order to prevent overcrowding.
"So we are going to be appealing to people to look very carefully at the transport route they take and of course even making a choice about whether they travel at all."
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He also said that people in high tier areas should try to avoid travel out of their area.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are saying, avoid travel outside of your area.
"We are dissuading people travelling around generally from the very high tier areas. You can go abroad. But, of course there is a penalty to pay for that in terms of having a potential quarantine period when you come back."
The Transport Secretary has urged people to "look very carefully at the transport route they take" home for Christmas - and even consider not travelling.
