Guidance

Annual bus statistics, quality report: 2023

Updated 30 November 2023

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

About this release

This document supports the latest annual bus statistics as part of the bus statistics collection.

Detailed data tables covering Great Britain are available. For detailed commentary on England, please see the annual statistical release.

About annual bus statistics

The annual bus statistics release is based on a number of sources but primarily compiled from the annual Public Service Vehicle (PSV) survey of over 500 local bus operators. The survey provides information on passenger journeys, vehicle miles, revenue and costs, and vehicles and staff. Information on passenger journeys and bus mileage for London is provided by Transport for London (TfL).

Certain statistics are based on separate smaller surveys of the larger operators, such as information on fares, or from local authorities (punctuality, concessionary travel). In addition to the annual publication, estimates of fare changes are available on a quarterly basis.

A copy of the PSV survey form is available at the end of this report.

Quality of the annual bus data

Annual Bus Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for statistics and were confirmed as National Statistics in February 2013.

This report outlines some of the quality aspects of the data.

Introduction

Annual panel survey of passenger numbers

The annual bus statistics publication represents the most comprehensive single source of official data on the bus industry in Great Britain and provides data which is used in monitoring trends, developing policy and providing accountability for the subsidy provided to the industry, at a high level.

Many of the figures have been collected and compiled in a broadly similar way since the deregulation of the bus industry and therefore allow trends over time to be measured.

The primary source is the PSV Survey, an annual survey run by the Department for Transport (DfT) to collect information on the bus and coach industries and is a legal requirement under the Statistics of Trade Act (1947). It is a source for data on passenger journeys (tables BUS01), vehicle miles (tables BUS02), passenger miles (tables BUS03), operating revenue and costs (tables BUS04 and BUS05), vehicles (tables 06) and staff (table BUS07).

Relevance

These statistics provide key information on trends in the bus sector. Within the Department for Transport they are used for:

• ministerial briefing and to answer public enquiries

• as background to policy development

• monitoring trends in the bus sector, for example in relation to accessible buses

• by economists in modelling policy options

Outside DfT known uses include:

• passenger journeys figures are used as a measure of the overall health or state of the industry, for example by private research organisations, and are occasionally reported in the trade press

• local authorities may use these statistics to compare trends in their area with the national picture

• these statistics have also provided background information for recent reports by the Transport Select Committee and Competition Commission

• bus fares data are used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in calculating the Retail and Consumer Price Indices and in the National Accounts

Coverage

These statistics refer to the activities of holders of Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operators’ licences. An operator wishing to run bus or coach services is normally required to possess a PSV licence. However, certain vehicles and types of service are exempt from licensing and are excluded from the figures, such as community buses and local services operated by taxis. The tables relate to local bus services.

A local bus service is a stopping service available to the general public, where the route is registered with the Traffic Commissioner, which is eligible for Bus Service Operators Grant.

Data is collected from over 450 local bus operators out of approximately 600 and Transport for London (TfL) who provide data on passenger journeys, vehicle miles, revenue and costs, and vehicles and staff. The annual survey data provided by operators covers around, or above, 95% of the total figure for key indicators (passenger journeys and vehicle miles operated), with the remainder imputed.

Because the local bus sector is dominated by relatively few large operators, most of whom provide data, sampling errors (that is random fluctuations due to selecting only a sample of operators) are very small in relation to other non-sampling errors (for example, inaccurate data provided by operators).

The annual publication is for England, but some tables cover Great Britain.

Strengths of the data

Long-term and continuous

Many of the figures have been collected and compiled in a broadly similar way since the deregulation of the bus industry and therefore allow trends over time to be measured. Although, following revisions to the methodology used to compile the published figures, year ending March 2005 is the earliest year for which figures are comparable on exactly the same basis.

Coverage

Because the local bus sector is dominated by relatively few large operators, most of whom provide data, sampling errors (that is random fluctuations due to selecting only a sample of operators) are very small in relation to other non-sampling errors (for example, inaccurate data provided by operators). Comparison with other sources suggests that, at the aggregate (national) level, the statistics are likely to provide a robust measure of both levels and trends.

Limitations

Coverage

While overall coverage is good, coverage for the very small operators is less good. This is due to a variety of factors including lack of contact info and inability to complete the survey due to respondent burden. Typically, these operators only hold one or two discs and make up a tiny fraction of passenger journeys in total.

Journeys not passengers

The survey captures the number of passenger boardings or journeys. This is not the same as the number of passengers as one passenger may make multiple trips.

Journey details

While the survey captures the number of passenger boardings, it does not capture detailed information about the journeys, such as the origin and destination, or purpose of the journey.

Passenger details

The survey does not capture any details of the people using local bus services, such as their demographics, journey satisfaction, or the reasons behind their travel mode choice. However, data from other sources are used to provide supplement data (see below).

Data quality

As National Statistics, the annual statistics are produced to high professional standards as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics and many quality control measures are in place to ensure the integrity of the data.

Data collection is online through a secure website. A copy of the survey questions is available.

The key sources of errors arising in the production of statistics derived from the PSV survey are likely to be the result of inaccurate returns provided by bus operators. DfT attempts to mitigate the impact of such errors through data validation and cleaning, in particular comparing data provided by the larger operators with previous years, though this is not always possible. Some aspects of the survey are particularly difficult for some operators, usually the smaller ones, to complete.

These validation checks are used to generate a quality assurance report to ensure that any large changes compared with previous years are identified and investigated, seeking explanations where differences are large or unexpected.

Other dimensions of quality

Response rate

Although all operators are encouraged and reminded to return the survey, greater effort is made to receive data from larger local operators to ensure that the resulting estimates are as robust as possible.

In the year ending March 2023, full or partial responses were received from 437 operators (87% of the sample), approximately 92% of returns were complete giving a full response rate of 80%.

Overall, this means 80% of journeys nationally were from the survey and 20% were imputed.

Respondent burden

There are many questions on a variety of different areas. This means respondent burden can vary depending on company size and can involve multiple different teams within a company. No formal assessment has been made, but including queries on returns provided, it is likely to be on average a day of one person’s time to complete.

Timeliness

The statistical release is generally published around 6 to 7 months after the end of the reference period.

Accuracy

Comparison with other sources suggests that, at the aggregate (national) level, the statistics are likely to provide a reasonably robust measure of levels and broad trends. However, figures representing smaller groups of operators and single year on year changes should be treated with caution as these are more susceptible to measurement errors (for example, an inaccurate return by an operator, or a change in an operator’s method of producing the figures such as the introduction of ticketing machines to record data) which are more likely to even out at the national level.

Because the local bus sector is dominated by relatively few large operators, most of whom provide data, sampling errors (that is random fluctuations due to selecting only a sample of operators) are very small in relation to other non-sampling errors (for example, inaccurate data provided by operators). There remains the possibility that the data captured is incorrect: respondents may make an error when completing the return or there may be errors in the underlying data. Our quality assurance procedures attempt to mitigate these errors, although they cannot entirely remove this risk.

The majority of figures are based largely on data provided directly by operators, aggregated to national and sub-national levels. Where such figures are not available (either because an operator was not included in a survey or was selected but did not provide a return or missed some questions) figures for that operator are imputed using previous year’s figures where possible, applying other data if available or based on the number of licence discs held.

For the key indicators (passenger journeys and vehicle miles operated) the data provided by operators covers around, or above, 95% of the total figure, with the remainder imputed. This will also have an impact with previous years’ data, where more up to date information is used to impute data, usually limited to the four preceding years and changes of under 1% to previously reported figures. In rare occurrences, we receive corrections to previous year data which may change figures to a more significant level particularly at local authority level, including reallocations across local authority boundaries.

Imputations are made using past year data for that company or where none exists using a coefficient factor for companies of a similar size and area type.

Revisions

The PSV survey uses imputation techniques to derive key figures for operators who were either not selected in the sample for that year, or who did not respond. On occasion, imputations for earlier years can be improved using directly reported data for later years. Minor revisions to back-data can occur as a result, although trends are rarely affected substantively.

Factors affecting year ending March 2023 figures

The survey for year ending March 2023 was the first year since year ending March 2019 where no movement restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic applied to any part of the financial year. There will be some expected uplift in the figures compared to the previous year as post-pandemic recovery continues.

Ahead of the year ending March 2023 publication an inconsistency was identified in the way respondents were reporting total operating costs on local bus services (question 12). Some operators were reporting operating costs before BSOG has been deducted and others were reporting them after BSOG had been deducted. The guidance states that these figures should be reported before BSOG has been deducted.

This means that there has been inconsistency with this data historically, and it has typically been underreported as some operators have deducted their BSOG rebate from costs. Additional work has been undertaken in the year ending March 2023 publication to highlight the guidance to operators and check during the validation process if they are reporting in line with the guidance, although we cannot be 100% certain all figures have been supplied as requested. This means the year ending March 2023 data is not directly comparable with earlier years. We will continue to make this a focus of our data validation process.

The DfT bus punctuality statistics

Coverage

The punctuality survey is an annual survey of all local authorities in England which provides a measure of the performance of local bus services. The figures are based either on manual surveys carried out by local authorities, or from electronic data derived from Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) devices.

The survey provides estimates of the percentage of non-frequent bus services running on time and the average excess waiting time for frequent services. These estimates are published at local authority level in tables BUS09a and BUS09b respectively.

Strengths of the data

Long term and continuous

The first punctuality survey was carried out in the year ending March 2005 and has been run annually since then, with the exception of the year ending March 2020 when the survey was not run to reduce the burden on local authorities during the coronavirus pandemic.

Coverage

All local authorities in England are included in the punctuality survey.

Limitations

Comparability

As the figures are provided by different authorities, there are some differences in the methods used to calculate punctuality which may affect comparisons between different authorities. In particular, the source of the data varies with some authorities utilising electronic data from AVL devices whilst others will use a sample of manual surveys.

Response rate

While the survey is issued to all local authorities in England, we do not receive responses from all of these authorities. This is due to a variety of factors including local authorities not holding this data or not having access to it from operators or local authorities being unable to run manual surveys.

Data quality

As Official Statistics, the annual statistics are produced to high professional standards as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics and many quality control measures are in place to ensure the integrity of the data.

Data collection is online through a secure website. A copy of the survey questions is available.

Validation checks are used to ensure that any large changes compared with previous years are investigated. Returns are validated by comparison with previous years and seeking explanation where differences are large or unexpected.

Other dimensions of quality

Response rate

The survey response rate is high, in the latest survey, 83% of local authorities responded to the survey.

Respondent burden

In terms of time: We have not collected information on time taken to complete the survey in the last few years so are unable to provide an accurate estimation.

In terms of costs: We did not collect information in terms of costs to complete the survey in the year ending March 2023.

Timeliness

The statistical release is generally published around 6 to 7 months after the end of the reference period.

Accuracy

The individual figures reported by authorities are calculated using their internal systems and so are based on the information held by the individual authority. There are a number of factors that may affect the accuracy of the data. These include variations in the methodology applied by different authorities including the data source (manual survey versus AVL) and the methodology used to calculate punctuality measures.

There also remains the possibility that there are errors in the sampling and calculation of the punctuality measures, the data captured is incorrect, the form may not be clear, or the respondents may make an error when completing the form. While our quality assurance procedures attempt to mitigate these errors, it does not remove the risk of them entirely.

Operators are provided with guidance on calculating their return.

Other data sources

The annual bus statistics publication uses data from a number of different sources and there are further sources of useful information on buses and bus travel which provide alternative, additional or contextual data to provide a more complete picture of the bus sector these include:

DfT and other sources used in the publication

DfT quarterly fares survey

Covers changes in fares on local bus services in Great Britain, split by region. Data for the bus fares index is collected through a sample survey of around 100 operators and TfL. The index measures change in the gross yield. This is the change in passenger receipts (excluding concessionary fare reimbursement and subsidies from the government) which would result from a fares change, assuming no change in passenger numbers.

Operators supply information each quarter. Annual indices for groups of operators in different areas of Great Britain are obtained by averaging. The Department publishes the quarterly bus fares statistics, on a quarterly basis, in the form of a table. The Department also publishes monthly statistics on bus usage at a national level.

DfT bus punctuality statistics

Tables BUS09a and BUS09b are based on an annual survey of local authorities who monitor punctuality using manual surveys or data from electronic systems. They provide one measure of the performance of local bus services. There are different measures of punctuality for frequent and non-frequent services.

Concessionary Travel Survey (CT Survey)

The Concessionary Travel Survey is an annual data collection by DfT, to gather information from Travel Concession Authorities (TCAs). A statutory bus concession for older and disabled people has been in place since 2001. This statutory concession is referred to as the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) and is administered by the TCAs.

The survey is sent to the 84 TCAs outside London and to London Councils. The survey asks questions relating to expenditure, pass numbers, concessionary journeys, reimbursement and availability of youth and other discretionary concessions. The latest figures and further information are available. This is scheduled for release in November 2023.

Transport for London data

Transport for London (TfL) covers half of all local bus passenger journeys in England and are responsible for bus registrations in London. TfL publish many additional reports and information on buses in London as well as for other public transport. TfL supply figures for their services, some of which run outside London. These are adjusted by DfT to cover the Greater London region only, based on figures for patronage on cross-boundary services also supplied by TfL. Where it is clear that operators have not reported boardings for TfL services which they operate in areas outside London, these are added to the total journeys outside London.

TfL publish a large amount of information on bus journeys. As such they publish many additional reports and information on buses in London as well as for other public transport.

Many local authorities also publish information on buses in their area, but this varies by local authority. TfL use their own ticketing machines on all tendered services, and they collate all the data centrally, as well as carrying out additional surveys.

More detailed information relating to bus travel in London can be found on the TfL website.

National Travel Survey (NTS)

The National Travel Survey (NTS) is a household survey of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain, from data collected via interviews and a 7-day travel diary. The NTS provides data on travel by bus including information on the characteristics of bus users (for example by age, sex, car ownership) and take-up of concessionary travel.

The NTS covers all modes of personal travel and therefore allows bus travel to be compared with other modes and the mode share to be estimated. It also provides alternative measures of bus patronage.

Data from the NTS have been designated as National Statistics.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) datasets

Population data is produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, the mid-2022 estimates were revised on 23 November, which did not leave sufficient time to use that data in this release. Due to this, mid-2021 estimates were used to produce the statistics relating to the year ending March 2023 in this release.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a combined survey of households in Great Britain. Its purpose is to provide information on key social and socioeconomic variables between the 10-yearly censuses. The figures shown for the age of bus drivers in this release are based on the APS whereas in previous releases figures were based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS). This change in the source is to enable the use of larger sample sizes in the analysis, in an effort to improve the reliability of the figures presented. Therefore, we have switched to using 3 year APS datasets as opposed to a single quarter that was previously used from the LFS. It should also be noted however that the trends are broadly in line with the previous analysis from the LFS.

The APS is used in the statistical release to provide information on bus and coach staff and drivers in addition to average weekly earnings and hours worked from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

Public transport support and concessionary travel reimbursement data

Financial data for local authorities are produced by Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). However, only provisional data on revenue outturn has been published as of 30 November 2023. Due to this it is not currently possible to produce estimates for public transport support and concessionary travel reimbursement for the year ending March 2023. We plan to publish updated tables at a later date once final revenue outturn data has been published by DLUHC.

Other datasets

Bus user satisfaction data is available from Transport Focus, the independent transport user watchdog. The bus satisfaction survey has now stopped. In the interim until a new measure is introduced the transport focus bus user weekly survey has been used to provide figures on the levels of satisfaction of bus users with their most recent journey. In addition, due to the coronavirus pandemic a different survey method has been used to gather this information from the previous bus passenger survey, so direct comparisons with previous years’ data should not be made.

Information related to the impact of buses on the environment is published by DfT, based on Defra statistics. The information is included within the DfT Environment statistics.

Information on vehicles licensed as buses and coaches is available from DfT statistics on licensed vehicles. These provide an alternative measure of the vehicle stock, which is not directly comparable with data collected in the PSV survey (see notes to table BUS06a for details).

Bus Open data

The Bus Services Act (2017) provided powers for the Secretary of State (Transport) to legally require operators of local bus services across England to openly publish data about those services, including timetables; fares; and location data.

During 2020, DfT launched the new Bus Open Data Service where data consumers including researchers and application developers, will be able to find and use this data online.

The annual bus statistics publication relates to England. Figures for Scotland and Wales are published by the Scottish Government and Welsh Government.

Other data sources available on buses

Below is a selection of some of the sources with links to their websites. We do not take responsibility for the quality or content of these sources, nor is this a fully exhaustive list.

Traffic Commissioners publish data on the number of bus routes registered and bus route variations in their annual reports. Caution should be used when using this data to make judgements on the overall bus market, as routes are changed for many operational reasons and can vary greatly in length and frequency.

Traffic Commissioners also publish changes to local routes and provide notices to changes at local bus route level. In addition, they provide search tools to find your local operator and find your local registered bus routes.

Traveline is a partnership of transport companies, local authorities and passenger groups which have come together to bring you routes and times for all travel in Great Britain by bus, rail, coach and ferry. As well as this Traveline offers several open data options.

The National Highways and Transport Network (NHT) is a service improvement organisation providing a range of benchmarking services for the Highways and Transport sector. They perform a large public satisfaction survey each year across multiple modes including public transport with data available at local authority level.

The TAS Partnership is a transport consultancy and provides data and research including undertaking a fares survey to identify bus ticket prices across the UK every 2 years.

Bus Times is an unofficial source for bus times and a useful website to find local bus route times and information. It utilises other open data sources and contains contact details for most bus operators.

The department also collects a range of statistics related to Concessionary Travel from Travel Concession Authorities (TCAs). These cover pass holding and use, expenditure and reimbursement and availability of youth and other discretionary schemes. They are published as part of the ‘buses’ series on the department’s website.

Terminology

Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operator

For the purposes of these statistics, these are licensed operators of Public Service Vehicles in Tax Classes 34 and 38 using buses, minibuses or coaches for public service (which include local bus services, school services, long-distance coaching, tours, excursions and private hire). Taxi services and any work not intended for carrying passengers are excluded.

Local bus service

Local services are scheduled stopping services registered with the Traffic Commissioner. School bus services should be included if the service is registered as a local service available to the general public and it is eligible for Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG).

In Greater London, local services include tendered services for Transport for London or those run with a London Service Permit. Outside London, local services include commercial, tendered and de-minimis local bus services including those supported by Rural Bus Subsidy Grant or Challenge funding.

Non-local services

These include (the non-registered parts of) scheduled coach services, school contracts where the service cannot be used by fare-paying members of the public at bus stops, private hire where the vehicle is hired in advance and pre-booked tours. Only work done in Great Britain is included.

Passenger journeys

A count of the total number of boardings of each vehicle, so a trip which requires a change from one bus to another would be counted as two journeys in these figures. Figures do not include children under 5 years of age.

Concessionary passengers

This category covers all passengers (elderly, disabled and youth) where operators receive full or partial fare reimbursement from local authorities as part of a statutory or non-statutory concessionary travel scheme. Commercial concessions which may be offered by some operators (for example, free travel for their staff) are excluded.

Vehicle mileage and kilometres (local bus services)

Mileage (kilometres) operated on local bus service. This includes only ‘live’ (for example, service) miles and not ‘dead’ running from depots to the start of a route.

Subsidised services (also called tendered or supported services)

These services are those that receive local authority support for all or part of their operation, normally where there is insufficient commercial demand to sustain the service without such support.

Examples will include school routes, evening services on certain routes, or socially necessary services in communities where buses would not otherwise call. They are awarded following competitive tendering or run for local authorities under de-minimis arrangements.

The DfT Public Service Vehicle Operator Survey

A copy of the most recent DfT Public Service Vehicle Operator Survey is below

STATS100: DfT LOCAL BUS OPERATOR SURVEY year ending March 2023

This return is for operators of local bus services, registered with the Traffic Commissioner.

This includes all services for which Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) is claimed other than community transport services.

A return is required by law under the Statistics of Trade Act 1947.

This form lists the questions required for the above return

This is provided to assist you in completing the online survey

PLEASE ENTER ALL DATA TO THE ONLINE SURVEY WEBSITE USING THE USERNAME AND PASSWORD PROVIDED

The personal data you provide is purely for the purpose of DfT being able to contact you in regards to this survey and also to send you details of next year’s survey. This information is gathered in connection with our public task as a government department. Further details on DfT’s privacy policy can be found at www.gov.uk/dft/privacy-policy. We will share your information with Kenda (our contractor who host the survey) so that your contact details can be included in the online survey form when you log in. Your personal data will be stored in an Excel database so we can send you next year’s survey. For any further correspondence about any of our surveys/publications, please contact bus statistics.

Please refer to the guidance you should have also received if you have questions on this return. If you have any further questions, or do not operate registered local bus services, please contact bus statistics.

PLEASE ENTER YOUR DETAILS:

Operator Licence Number(s)

Operator Name

Number of PSV licence discs held on this licence as at 31 March 2023

As at 31 March, does this licence belong to a company which is part of a larger transport group? For example, Go Fast Bus South may be part of the larger Go-Fast Bus group.

If yes, what is the parent group?

Local authority or passenger transport executive (PTE) area in which you operated most of your local bus services as at 31 March 2023?

Other areas in which you operate local bus services and or pick up passengers. Please correct as necessary

Were you part of at least one statutory partnership scheme, as at 31 March 2023?

Were you part of at least one voluntary partnership scheme, as at 31 March 2023?

Contact Name (in case of queries):

Phone Number:

Email Address:

SECTION 1: YOUR OPERATOR’S VEHICLES AND STAFF as at 31 March 2023

Vehicles

1. At 31 March 2023 how many of the following PSV vehicles did you operate?

(a) Buses licensed for over 22 passengers (including standing)

(b) Coaches of 17 or more seats (NO standing, usually fitted with seatbelts)

(c) Minibuses 9 to 22 passengers (including standing)

(d) Total number of PSVs (a+b+c)

2. Of the buses you operated at 31 March 2023 how many:

(a) Had a Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR) Accessibility Certificate, issued under the Disability Discrimination Act PSV Accessibility Regulations 2000 (wheelchair accessible designs)?

Of the buses you operate without PSVAR certificates, how many:

i) Are not used on local and or scheduled services

b) Did not have the Certificate but which were low floor designs, suitable for wheelchair access?

c) Were fitted with an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) device (for example, GPS, beacon) that can be used to monitor punctuality?

Of the buses fitted with an AVL device, how many:

i) use the AVL device to provide real time service information to customers? Examples of ways that real time service information can be provided to customers include on bus stop displays, mobile technology, on board the bus, mobile apps or the internet.

ii) Is this information made available, in real time, free of charge (either by your organisation or through a third party, such as the local authority)?

iii) use the AVL device to monitor punctuality?

d) Were equipped with live readers that accept ITSO-compliant smart cards (or mobile phones emulating these) only?

e) Were equipped with live card readers that accept contactless Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) payment cards (or mobile phones emulate these) only?

f) Were equipped with live readers that accept both ITSO smart cards and contactless EMV payment cards (or mobile phones emulating these)?

g) Who supplies your live reader technology (such as Ticketer, Vix, Init)?

h) Were equipped with CCTV recording?

i) Were equipped with facilities to provide audible and visible next stop information to passengers?

ii) Were equipped with facilities to provide audible and visible route or direction, next stop and diversion inform passengers?

j) Were equipped with wifi technology enabling passengers to access free wifi?

k) Were fitted with facilities for passengers to charge mobile phones, laptops and tablets? Examples of these facilities include 13 amp sockets, USB charging points and wireless charging.

1. Of the buses you operated at 31 March 2023 how many were :

(a) manufactured in

(a) i) 2023

(a) ii) 2022

(a) iii) 2021

(a) iv) 2020

(a) v) 2019

(a) vi) 2018

(a) vii) 2017

(a) viii) 2016

(a) ix) 2015

(a) x) 2014

(a) xi) 2013

(a) xii) 2012

(a) xiii) 2011

(a) xiv) 2010

(a) xv) 2009

(a) xvi) 2008

(a) xvii) 2007

(a) xviii) 2006

(a) xix) 2005

(a) xx) 2004

(a) xxi) 2003

(a) xxii) 2002

(a) xxiii) 2001

(a) xxiv) before 2000

(a) xxv) Total number of buses (excluding minibuses and coaches)

(b) categorised as the following bus types:

(b) i) Euro III standards

(b) ii) Euro IV standards

(b) iii) Euro V standards

(b) iv) Euro VI standards – as manufactured

(b) v) Euro VI standards - CVRAS approved retrofit

(b) vi) Diesel-Hybrid – Euro VI standards

(b) vii) Diesel-Hybrid - other

(b) viii) Compressed natural gas (CNG)/Biomethane

(b) ix) Battery Electric

(b) x) Hydrogen Fuel Cell

(b) xi) Other

(b) xii) Total number of buses (excluding minibuses and coaches)

(c) operated using the following fuel types

(c) i) Hydrogen

(c) ii) Electric (not hybrid)

(c) iii) Diesel-Hybrid

(c) iv) Methane/Biomethane

(c) v) Diesel

(c) vi) Other (including Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO))

(c) vii) Total number of buses (excluding minibuses and coaches)

PSV Staff

4. At 31 March 2023 how many Full Time Equivalent staff did you employ to do PSV work as:

(a) PSV Drivers, or other on-vehicle PSV staff?

i) PSV Drivers

ii) On-Vehicle PSV staff (excluding drivers)

(b) PSV Maintenance Staff?

(c) PSV Cleaning Staff?

(d) PSV Administrative/Other (to all management levels)?

(e) Total PSV Staff employed? (a+b+c+d)

5. From March 2018, Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 181/2011 requires that drivers are trained in disability awareness consistent with Part A of Annex II to that Regulation. Such training may be provided as part of Driver Certificate Professional Competence (DCPC) or separate to it.

As at 31 March 2023, did you require your drivers to meet this requirement:

(a) As part of Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (DCPC)

(b) Separate from Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (DCPC)

(c) As a combination of Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (DCPC) and partly outside it

(d) Not at all

SECTION 2: YOUR LOCAL BUS SERVICES for year 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023

In this section, please answer the questions in relation to your local bus services only.

Please refer to guidance notes for further information if required.

Passenger boardings

6. During 2022-23, how many local passenger boardings did you carry?

(a) Older or disabled concessionary passengers (where reimbursement received from a local authority under the statutory scheme or a local enhancement)

(b) Youth concessionary passengers on local services where full or partial reimbursement received from a local authority (please do not include your own commercial concessions or school contract services)

(c) Other passengers, including commercial concessions and season tickets but NOT including children under 5 or passengers on services not available to the general public such as closed school and works only services should NOT be included

(d) Total passenger boardings (a+b+c)

(e) Of the total in question 6(d), if possible, please provide your best estimate of the number of passenger boardings on local authority subsidised or tendered services. These are usually services awarded following competitive tendering. Please do not include services run under contract to bodies other than local authorities or PTEs

7. The following question only applies if you operated services in more than one area

Please fill in the grid below for each local authority or PTE (please see the list supplied in the guidance) you operated in for year ending March 2023. You will be able to add more using the online form if required.

We appreciate that dividing data by local authority can be difficult, however, even if the figures are approximate (for example, using estimated shares for each local authority) they are very useful to us.

Name of Local Authority or PTE	Older or disabled concessionary passengers	Young concessionary passengers	Other passengers	Total passenger boardings

‘Live’ vehicle kilometres operated

8. During the year ending March 2023, how many live vehicle kilometres did you operate on local bus services?

‘Live’ kilometres means excluding any ‘dead running’ between depot and start or end of routes

(a) In Greater London?

(b) Outside London, on commercial services?

(c) Outside London on local authority subsidised or tendered services? These are services awarded following competitive tendering or run for local authorities under de-minimis arrangements. Please do not include services run under contract to bodies other than local authorities or PTEs.

(d) Total live vehicle kilometres (a+b+c)

9. The following question only applies if you operated services in more than one area

As for question 7, please fill in the grid below for each local authority or PTE you operated in for the year ending March 2023. The totals over all areas should match those in question 8.

Name of Local Authority or PTE	Live vehicle kilometres in Greater London	Commercial live vehicle kilometres	Subsidised live vehicle kilometres	Total live vehicle kilometres

SECTION 3: FINANCIAL INFORMATION for year 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022

We require data for the year 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. However, if your standard accounting period differs from this and it is easier to provide figures on this basis please use the year which most closely relates to 2022-23 and indicate what this is.

Passenger Receipts

10. The following questions relate to receipts from fare-paying passengers only:

Please include both on and off bus fares (for example, season tickets).

Please do NOT include any payments received from local authorities for concessionary fare reimbursement or contract payments

(a) What were the total commercial receipts you received from journeys made by young people who are subject to concessionary fare reimbursement? (for example, the passengers given at question 6(b))

(b) What was the total commercial receipts you received from other fare-paying passengers, including commercial concessions and season tickets? (for example, the passengers given at question 6(c))

(c) What proportion of sales revenue is paid for with contactless EMV cards?

11. The following question only applies if you operated services in more than one area

As for question 7, please fill in the grid below for each local authority or PTE area you operated in for 2022-23.

Name of local authority or PTE	Receipts from youth concessionary passengers	Receipts from other fare-paying passengers

Costs

12. Please can you state how much cost you had in the following categories in 2022-23:

(a) What were the total operating costs on local bus services? (Include traffic operations, drivers wages, fuel costs before BSOG rebate, maintenance and running costs)

i. Drivers wages

ii. Fuel Costs (excluding BSOG)

iii. Other fixed costs (including other labour/staff costs, insurance, maintenance, vehicle depreciation and all other operating costs)

(b) What were the total operating costs on other (non-local) services? e.g. For coach and private hire work

(c) What were the total administration costs?

Management, welfare and non-operational costs (may be estimated)

(d) What were the depreciation costs?

Historic depreciation of owned or leased assets. Exclude the cost of interest on loans.

SECTION 4: FURTHER INFORMATION

13.(a) Have there been any major changes that might have affected this year’s results, and or caused difference from previous years? (for example, new or lost contracts, acquisitions ) Yes or No

(b) If yes, please give details

(c) Do you have any further comments?

14. Do you operate any scheduled (timetabled) coach services, which do not need to be registered with the Traffic Commissioner:

(a) As an operator in your own right? Yes or No

(b) Under contract to another operator (for example, National Express)? Yes or No

If yes to either (a) or (b), please briefly describe the services run

SECTION 5: FEEDBACK

Do you have any feedback that you want to provide on this survey? Please give details

Please enter the information requested via the online survey form.

If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact bus statistics.

The DfT Punctuality Survey

A copy of the most recent DfT Punctuality Survey is below

This survey is one of the Department for Transport (DfT) items on the single data list and as such you are required to provide a response.

If further details are required, please refer to the guidance notes which can be found on the Bus statistics data collection forms

The personal data you provide is purely for the purpose of DfT being able to contact you in regard to this survey and also to send you details of next year’s survey. This information is gathered in connection with our public task as a government department. Further details on DfT’s privacy policy is available.

Your personal data will be stored in an Excel database so we can send you next year’s survey. For any further information about any of our surveys or publications, please contact bus statistics.

Please select your local authority from the drop-down list

Local authority name

If your local authority is not in the list above, please enter it here

Please enter your contact details

• Contact name

• Phone number

• Email address

Question 2. Non-frequent service running on time

• What was the proportion of non-frequent bus services (fewer than 6 buses an hour) running on time in your area during 2022-23? Please enter a % figure to the nearest whole number omitting the % sign (for example, enter 93 for 93%)

Question 2. Average excess waiting time for frequent services

• Are there any frequent local bus services (6 or more per hour) in your area? (Yes or No)

• If yes, what was the average excess waiting time for frequent bus services in your area during 2022-23? Please provide a figure in minutes to 2 decimal places (for example, enter 1.74 for 1.74 minutes)

Question 3. Bus punctuality partnership

• Is there a bus punctuality partnership in your area? (Yes or No)

Question 4. Any further comments

DfT welcomes any feedback you would be prepared to provide on this return, for example in relation to data collection methodology (brief details) or any factors and or changes that may have affected how this year’s figures compare with previous years.

We would be grateful if you could please indicate whether the data are obtained from surveys or from electronic (Real Time Information (RTI) or other) data.

End page You have completed this survey Thank you for taking the time to complete these questions.

If you have any feedback on the survey you can contact bus statistics.

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Contact details

Bus statistics

Email bus.statistics@dft.gov.uk

Public enquiries 020 7082 6602

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