Domestic Transport Usage by Mode
Updated 10 April 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/domestic-transport-usage-by-mode
These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. More information about these statistics can be found in the methodology note.
Usage of transport by mode from April 2023
Usage is shown as a percentage of pre-COVID-19 baseline; baselines used vary between modes (see methodology for further information). For rail, usage is shown as a 7-day rolling average ending on the indicated date. For all other modes, daily usage for weekdays (excluding bank holidays) is shown.
Figure 1: Transport usage progressively recovers to pre-COVID-19 level, across all modes
Transport usage as a proportion of pre-COVID-19 levels, Great Britain, April 2023 to April 2024
Description of Figure 1: This figure presents a series of 4 line charts which show transport usage as a proportion of pre-COVID-19 levels, for motor vehicles, buses (excluding London), National Rail (excluding the Elizabeth line) and Transport for London (tube and buses) over the last 12 months. Over the past year, public transport mode usage (National Rail, buses and Transport for London (TfL)) has remained below pre-COVID-19 levels, whereas motor vehicles usage has remained closer to pre-COVID-19 levels.
For all modes, usage fluctuates day-to-day, and bus usage outside of London is heavily impacted by school holidays throughout the year. Sharp changes in modal usage are as a result of weather events, industrial action or other events. More detail about this can be found in the footnotes of the published data table.
Table 1 below compares the range of usage during the current publishing period (from Tuesday 12 March 2024 to Monday 8 April 2024[footnote 1]) to the previous publishing period (Tuesday 13 February 2024 to Monday 11 March 2024) as a percentage of the pre-COVID-19 baseline. For all modes, except rail, transport usage excludes weekends and bank holidays, with rail presenting a 7-day rolling average of usage for all days.
Table 1: Latest transport usage, by mode
| Mode | Latest usage at date | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| Rail (GB excluding Elizabeth Line) | 72% (Sunday 31 March 2024) | Passenger journeys in the week ending Sunday 31 March 2024 were 72% of those observed in the equivalent week in 2019. In the current publishing period, weekly average usage figures have been between 72% to 90%, compared to 73% to 91% in the last publishing period. These figures exclude Elizabeth Line services usage. |
| Bus (GB excluding London) | 76% (Monday 8 April 2024) | Bus boardings outside of London on Monday 8 April 2024 were 76% of the volume observed on the equivalent day in the third week of January 2020. In the current publishing period weekday bus usage has been between 68% to 96% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 81% to 96% in the last publishing period. |
| London Bus | 76% (Friday 5 April 2024) | TfL bus boardings on Friday 5 April 2024 were 76% of the equivalent day in 2019. In the current publishing period usage has ranged between 75% to 100%, while usage in the last publishing period was between 78% to 100% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline. |
| London Tube | 73% (Friday 5 April 2024) | Tube entries and exits on Friday 5 April 2024 were 73% of the equivalent day in 2019. In the current publishing period usage has ranged between 73% to 85% while usage in the last publishing period was between 74% to 87% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline. |
| Motor Traffic (GB) | 99% (Monday 8 April 2024) | On Monday 8 April 2024 traffic volumes were 99% of the levels during the first week of February 2020. Weekday usage in this publishing period has been between 94% to 103% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to 96% to 100% in the last publishing period. |
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Rail and TfL data are lagged compared to other modes. For rail, the current period therefore covers Monday 4 March 2024 to Sunday 31 March 2024, while the previous publishing period covers Monday 5 February 2024 to Sunday 3 March 2024. For TfL, the current period covers Saturday 9 March 2024 to Friday 5 April 2024, while the previous publishing period covers Saturday 10 February 2024 to Thursday 7 March 2024. ↩