National statistics

Annual bus statistics: year ending March 2022 (revised)

Updated 14 March 2023

About this release

This statistical release presents the latest annual statistics on the local bus sector. Local bus services use public service vehicles (PSVs) to carry passengers paying separate fares over short distances. Most of the data are obtained from the Department for Transport’s (DfT) annual survey of local bus operators. Figures are presented for England, in line with coverage of DfT bus policy. Statistics for Scotland and Wales are available in the accompanying tables.

Changes to this release

We are providing our statistics releases in HTML format and we would like to hear your comments. If you have any feedback on our use of this format or on this release, please contact bus statistics.

The structure and format of the spreadsheet tables that accompany this release has changed to make them more accessible for our users. The new table index provides mapping between the old and new tables. Historical bus statistical data tables and discontinued bus statistics data tables are also available for download.

Headline figures

The number of local bus passenger journeys in England saw an increase by 1.3 billion or 79.6% to 2.8 billion in the financial year ending March 2022. This was however still far lower than 2 years ago where passenger journeys in the financial year ending 2020 for England were 4.1 billion.

Bus mileage in England saw an increase when compared to the financial year ending 2021 by 93.3 million miles or 9.6%. Bus mileage has been less severely impacted than passenger journeys over the last couple of years, largely due to the COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG) and then the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) which was introduced to keep services running that may have otherwise operated at a loss, or not operated at all.

Summary

Table 1 summarises the annual figures for bus passenger journeys and mileage for the financial year ending 2022. Figures are broken down by London, England outside London (metropolitan areas and non metropolitan areas), country and Great Britain.

Local bus journeys
Area	Passenger Journeys (billions), financial year ending 2022	Percentage change compared to financial year ending 2021	Percentage change compared to financial year ending 2020		Vehicle Mileage (billions) financial year ending 2022	Percentage change compared to financial year ending 2021	Percentage change compared to financial year ending 2020
London	1.5	+72.4%	-29.4%		0.3	+2.2%	0%
English metropolitan areas	0.6	+78.1%	-30.8%		0.3	+10.1%	-6.9%
English non-metropolitan areas	0.8	+96.5%	-31.5%		0.5	+14.1%	-10.3%
England	2.8	+79.6%	-30.3%		1.1	+9.6%	-6.8%
England outside London	1.4	+88.2%	-31.2%		0.8	+12.7%	-9.2%
Scotland	0.2	+87.9%	-35.2%		0.2	+13.2%	-11.7%
Wales	0.1	+101.6%	-42.5%		0.1	+27.9%	-18.0%
Great Britain	3.1	+80.6%	-30.9%		1.3	+10.7%	-8.0%

Concessionary travel

Total concessionary journeys (elderly or disabled, and youth concessions) in the financial year ending 2022 made up 32.7% (928 million passenger journeys) of all local bus passenger journeys in England. The percentage is slightly lower when compared with the financial year ending 2020 (33.7%). In England outside London, total concessionary journeys made up 30.5% of all passenger journeys. This was lower than in London where the figure was 34.7%. DfT’s Concessionary Travel Survey collects more detailed information from Travel Concession Authorities on concessionary passholder numbers, total expenditure on concessionary travel and discretionary concessions offered.

Things you need to know

The statistics presented in this release on the local bus sector in England provide information for monitoring trends in usage and provision for a mode of transport used for about 49% of public transport journeys.

The figures in this release relate to local bus services. These are timetabled services using public service vehicles to carry passengers over relatively short distances, and are usually eligible for Bus Services Operators Grant. Long distance coach services, private hire work and closed contracts are excluded but school services accessible to the general public are included.

The majority of bus services in England are provided by private companies since deregulation of the industry in 1986 in England outside London. Services can be operated on a purely commercial basis or with financial support from local authorities (supported services). London services are operated by private companies but regulated by Transport for London (TfL).

There are 2 broad passenger types, concessionary and non-concessionary passengers. Concessionary passengers are either elderly or disabled people (free to travel anywhere in England since April 2008) or young people in local authorities where such discretionary travel schemes exist. More detailed statistics on concessionary travel are published separately by DfT and available online.

Another part of the public transport network in a local authority is flexible or demand responsive modes of transport, including community transport. These forms of transport are unlikely to be captured in these statistics because the annual bus survey is completed by operators holding a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) license rather than the Section 19 and 22 permits that the majority of community transport organisations operate under.

There is also a large amount of home to school transport which is undertaken by PSV operators, but is not included in these local bus statistics. More information on these can be found on individual local authority websites and the Department for Education publishes expenditure on school transport.

Comment on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic impact

This publication covers data for the financial year ending 2022, which means that the data will be impacted by movement restrictions due to COVID-19 in Great Britain albeit less severely than the financial year ending 2021.

An indication of changes in bus passenger volume during this period can be found in separate datasets provided to monitor the use of the transport system during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Figures are available throughout the period for Great Britain excluding London. Figures for London are also available, however these figures come from a different source, but they have indicated usage trends that have been broadly in line with the quarterly passenger data that was previously published. The release published by Transport for London (TfL) provides additional information on bus services during this period.

Ticketer

Daily aggregated and anonymised passenger boardings and service provision compared to the January 2020 reference week (third week of January 2020) have been provided by Ticketer, one of the largest providers of Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs) in the UK. It is thought that, outside of TfL, West Midlands National Express, and Stagecoach, Ticketer is used by around 70% of operators.

We are confident that these figures are robust enough to indicate overall trends at England outside of London level. Passenger boardings will include physical ticket sales, as well as smart cards, QR tickets, and where the driver counts passengers (such as school runs). Service provision represents numbers of services run by an operator for a specific vehicle, direction and driver.

A service that has been cancelled would not be included. A figure of 100 means the same level as that seen on the same day in the reference week. A figure higher than 100 shows an increase. A figure less than 100 shows a decrease.

Recovery from the coronavirus pandemic

Daily passenger boardings and service provision

Data provided by Ticketer showed that during the first UK lockdown (March 2020), passenger journeys in England excluding London fell to 10% of those on the same day of the January reference week. As restrictions were eased passenger journeys increased, reaching up to 58% when children returned to school in September 2020.

During the second English lockdown (November 2020) the decrease in passenger boardings was less severe, falling to 40% of those on the same day of the January reference week.

The application of Tier 4 restrictions to large parts of England during December 2020 and the subsequent third English lockdown in January 2021 had a larger impact, with passenger boardings falling to 24% of those on the same day of the January reference week. In February 2021, a roadmap for lifting the lockdown was published, which led to several steps being introduced including schools reopening and allowing outdoor gatherings to take place.

In July 2021, most legal limits on social contact were removed in England and the remaining sectors of the economy reopened. The number of passenger boardings gradually increased in line with the lifting of these restrictions.

In December 2021, the Prime Minister announced a move to plan B measures in England following the advent of the Omicron variant. Although there was a drop in passenger journeys this did not fall as far as at the same point in the year previous with passenger boardings falling to a low of 48% .

It is likely that the introduction of the new measures alongside the reduced travel that typically occurs on bank holidays over December led to the fall in the number of passenger journeys. In January, passenger boardings began to recover and plan B measures were also lifted after which numbers continued to broadly recover to around 80% in March 2022.

Following an initial decrease between March and June 2020, service provision remained consistently high. The introduction of the COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG) is thought to have played a large part in this alongside the return of children to schools in September. CBSSG came to an end on 31 August 2021 and was followed by the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) on the 1 September 2021, which is thought to have helped keep the service levels relatively consistent for the following months with numbers around 88% in March 2022.

Chart 1: 7 day average of passenger boardings and service provision in England, excluding London, compared to the same day in the third week of January 2020: March 15 2020 to March 31 2022

Daily passenger boardings by time of day

The pandemic and subsequent introduction of movement restrictions not only impacted overall passenger boardings but also affected the distribution of passenger boardings throughout the day in England excluding London.

Chart 2 shows that in January 2020 passenger boardings were at their highest during the peak times of 7am to 10am and 3pm to 6pm. During the first UK lockdown (represented by the May 2020 graph below) the distribution shifted, with passenger boardings at their highest in the middle of the day. During the second English lockdown (November 2020), in which schools remained open, passenger boardings were again at their highest during peak times, however a higher percentage of passengers travelled during the peak hours than in January 2020.

In early January 2021, movement restrictions were reintroduced albeit less strict than those in place during the same period in 2020. During the third English lockdown, with schools closed the pattern again shifted, with passenger boardings at their highest in the middle of the day. Once restrictions had been removed following the road map out of lockdown the distribution of passenger boardings throughout the day returned to a similar pattern to before the pandemic as shown by the charts for September 2021 and January 2022.

Chart 2: Distribution of daily passenger boardings by time of day in England, excluding London, second Tuesday of the month

Passenger journeys

England

In the financial year ending 2022, 2.8 billion passenger journeys were made by local bus in England, an increase of 1.3 billion or 79.6% compared with the financial year ending 2021. Chart 3 shows the trend in local bus journeys in England between the financial year ending 2005 and the financial year ending 2022.

Over this period bus use saw a slight increase through to the financial year ending 2009, after which it remained fairly stable until the financial year ending 2015, before gradually beginning to fall.

In the financial year ending 2021, there was a steep decline because of movement restrictions introduced throughout the year to reduce the spread of COVID-19. In the financial year ending 2022 bus use started to recover albeit was still around a third less (30.3%) than in the financial year ending 2020.

Chart 3: Local bus passenger journeys in England, financial years ending 2005 to 2022 - BUS01a

Why the distinction between London and England outside London?

Buses in London, through Transport for London, operate under a different regulatory framework to the rest of England. The size of the bus market in London and differing trends in bus use also makes it sensible to dis-aggregate these two area types. Different dis-aggregations are available online including local authority level and for urban and rural areas.

London

Passenger journeys in London accounted for 52% of all passenger journeys made by local buses in England in the financial year ending 2022. There were 1.5 billion passenger journeys made by local buses in London in the financial year ending 2022, an increase of 72.4% compared with the financial year ending 2021 (see chart 4). Before the financial year ending 2013, bus use in London increased every year since the financial year ending 1999.

England outside London

In the financial year ending 2022, 1.4 billion passenger journeys were made by local buses in England outside London, an increase of 88.2%. Prior to this bus use in England outside London has been on a downward trend since the peak of 2.41 billion passenger journeys in the financial year ending 2009 (see chart 4).

Chart 4: Local bus passenger journeys in England outside London and London, financial years ending 2005 to 2022 (BUS01a)

Metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas

Figures for England outside London can be dis-aggregated further into metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas are the 6 former metropolitan counties, which are:

• Greater Manchester
• Merseyside
• South Yorkshire
• Tyne and Wear
• West Midlands
• West Yorkshire

Non-metropolitan areas cover the remaining county councils and unitary authorities in England outside London.

In metropolitan areas, there were 0.6 billion passenger journeys in the financial year ending 2022, an increase of 78.1% from the financial year ending 2021. In non-metropolitan areas, there were 0.8 billion passenger journeys, an increase of 96.5% from the financial year ending 2021.

Chart 5: Local bus passenger journeys in England outside London by area type, financial years ending 2005 to 2022 - (BUS01a)

Bus use by local authority

The 2 tables in chart 6 show the local authorities with the highest and lowest passenger journeys per head of population in the financial year ending 2022 for England outside London. In general, urban local authorities have above average levels of bus use when compared with rural areas.

Chart 6: Local bus passenger journeys per head by local authority highest and lowest 5: England outside London, financial year ending 2022 (BUS01f)

The average number of bus passenger journeys per head in England outside London was 29 in the financial year ending 2022, this is higher than the previous year but lower than in the financial year ending 2020, where the figure was 42. The peak number of bus passenger journeys per head in England outside London was 55 in the financial year ending 2009.

There were falls across all local authorities between the financial years ending 2020 and 2021, with coronavirus the main factor in this. In comparison between the financial years ending 2021 and 2022 there were increases across local authorities as restrictions were lifted. These changes in the average number of bus passenger journeys per head for each local authority can be seen by the maps shown below.

Map 1: Journeys per head of population by local authority: England, financial years ending 2020 to 2022 (BUS01f)

About the data

The bus passenger journeys per head figures presented here are estimates based on returns provided by bus operators. The latest available mid-year population estimates published by the Office for National Statistics have been used. Neither of these sources account for bus passengers using the bus outside the local authority in which they reside. Users should be aware that figures for small areas can be affected by differences in how the data is recorded and processed and so individual figures should be interpreted carefully.

Bus mileage

In the financial year ending 2022, 1.1 billion bus service miles were run in England, a slight increase of 9.6% when compared with the financial year ending 2021 and 6.8% lower than 2 years ago.

In England outside London bus mileage saw an increase of 12.7% compared to the financial year ending 2021 but was 9.2% lower than in the financial year ending 2020. In London bus mileage also saw a small increase of 2.2% compared to the financial year ending 2021 and returned to similar levels as in the financial year ending 2020. London bus mileage has changed very little since the financial year ending 2005, fluctuating between around 285 and 300 million vehicle miles.

Bus mileage was less severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic than passenger journeys, largely due to the COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG) which was then followed by the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) which were both introduced to keep services running that may have otherwise operated at a loss, or not operated at all.

Chart 7: Vehicle miles on local bus services by area type: England, financial years ending 2005 to 2022 (BUS02a_mi)

Commercial and local authority supported bus mileage

In England outside London bus mileage saw a decrease of 24.9% since the financial year ending 2005. This has been driven by a decrease of 55.3% in local authority supported mileage, in particular in non-metropolitan areas.

Commercial mileage increased by 0.8% from the financial years ending 2005 to 2017, before it decreased slightly in the following 3 years, after which it decreased by 19.4% over the financial year ending 2021 due largely to the coronavirus pandemic. In the financial year ending 2022 there was an increase in commercial mileage by 13.3% largely reflecting the ongoing recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Chart 8 shows these changes over time for commercial bus mileage.

Supported mileage in England outside London gradually increased from 21.7% in the financial year ending 2005 before starting to gradually decrease from the financial year ending 2010 onwards. Chart 8 shows that in recent years this decrease has flattened out, with supported mileage as a percentage of total mileage at 12.9% in the financial year ending 2022.

Chart 8: Vehicle miles on local bus services by service type: England outside London, financial years ending 2005 to 2022 (BUS02a_mi)

Vehicles

The bullets below summarises the annual figures for the number of buses used by local operators in England in the financial year ending 2022.

Summary

31,000 buses used by local operators, of which:

• 9,000 buses were in London
• 95% had CCTV
• 19% had charging points
• 28% had free WiFi
• 92% were enabled for payment by contactless bank card
• 93% of buses in England outside London were ITSO smart enabled
• 99% had been issued with an accessibility certificate
• 58% met Euro VI emission standards in England (88% met these standards in London).
• 79% were diesel engines (excluding hybrid)
• 98% had an AVL device
• 46% provided audio visual information

There was a decrease in the number of buses used by local bus operators in England by 4.2% from 33,000 in the financial year ending 2021 to 31,000 in the financial year ending 2022. The highest proportion of buses used by local bus operators was in non-metropolitan areas with 45.6% (see chart 9).

Chart 9: Proportion of buses used by local bus operators by area type: England, financial year ending 2022 (BUS06b)

More granular data has been collected on vehicle age this year, and therefore the data previously presented in BUS0605 and BUS0611 have been superseded with figures on vehicles by year of manufacture, available ins BUS06f

The most common years of manufacture for a bus in England in the financial year ending 2022 were 2011 and 2016, with 2,439 and 2,417 buses being manufactured respectively.

Chart 10: Proportion of buses by age of manufacture: England, financial year ending 2022 (BUS06f)

Accessibility regulations

The Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 2000 (PSVAR) set out standards for public service vehicles to ensure they would be accessible to disabled people from 1 January 2017 at the latest (depending on bus type). Buses that comply with the accessibility regulations are issued with an accessibility certificate. Some buses are suitable for wheelchair access through low floor designs.

In the financial year ending 2022, 99% of all buses in England had been issued with an accessibility certificate.

Equipment on buses

In the last 16 years, the provision of CCTV and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) devices on buses has greatly improved. In the financial year ending 2022, 95% of buses used by local operators in England were equipped with CCTV, up from 44% in the financial year ending 2006.

Almost all buses were fitted with an AVL device (98% of buses in England, compared with 35% in the financial year ending 2007). Of all buses in England in the financial year ending 2022, 96% of AVL devices were being used to monitor punctuality and 93% used the AVL device to provide real time service information to customers.

In the financial year ending 2022, 28% of buses in England had free WiFi, which was broadly similar to the financial year ending 2021 but a decrease from 31% the year before.

Also 92% of buses in England were EMV smart card enabled (such as accept payments by this method that meets the global standard for credit and debit payment cards based on chip card technology) this is an increase from 88% in the financial year ending 2021 (see chart 11). In the financial year ending 2022, 93% of buses used by local bus operators in England outside London were ITSO smart enabled for payment, up from 25% in the financial year ending 2011.

In the financial year ending 2022, 46% of buses provided Audio Visual information to passengers. However, this total varies greatly in different parts of the country, 98% of buses in London provide Audio Visual information, while only 25% of buses in England outside London provided Audio Visual information. The figure for England outside London has risen every year since the financial year ending 2013 when it was 7%. In the financial year ending 2022, 35% of buses in England used the Audio Visual information system to provide route or direction, next stop and diversion information to passengers.

AVL, ITSO and EMV

Automatic Vehicle Location is used to track vehicle location in order to monitor punctuality and provide real time service information to customers. ITSO is an organisation which sets a common technical standard for smart ticketing. Further information on ITSO is available . EMV is a global standard for credit and debit payment cards based on chip card technology. The standard covers the processing of credit and debit card payments using a card that contains a microprocessor chip. Where a machine is EMV enabled for payment by contactless bank card (or mobile phones emulating these, for example, Android Pay or Apple Pay) this means that the terminal accepts EMV transactions of this nature.

Chart 11: Percentage of buses fitted with CCTV, AVL, Audio Visual and EMV smart enabled: England, financial year ending 2022 compared with previous years (BUS06d)

Bus fuel type emissions

In the financial year ending 2022, 58% of buses in England met the latest Euro VI emissions standards. 19% and 8% of buses met older Euro V and Euro IV standards, respectively. London saw higher prevalence of Euro VI buses than the rest of England with 88% meeting Euro VI standards (chart 12).

Emissions standards

The emission standards for trucks (lorries) and buses are defined by engine energy output in g/kWh. This is unlike the emission standards for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, which are defined by vehicle driving distance in g/km - a general comparison to passenger cars is therefore not possible.

Euro VI is currently the highest regulated emissions standard for buses. For more information and the levels of emissions for each category see the European emission standards.

Chart 12: Percentage of local buses by Emissions standards in England, financial year ending 2022 (BUS06e)

In the financial year ending 2022, 79% of all buses had a diesel fuel engine. A further 14% were diesel-hybrid engine, 3% were electric and a very small number were hydrogen (chart 13).

Chart 13: Percentage of local buses by fuel type in England, financial year ending 2022 (BUS06e)

Financial outlook

Bus fares

In the year to March 2022, local bus fares in England saw an increase of 3.6%. This compares with a 7% increase in the annual all items Consumer Prices Index rate meaning bus fares have fallen in real terms. The increase in local bus fares in England was driven by 5.9% increase in London and 2.5% increase in non-metropolitan areas. In England outside London, local bus fares increased by 1.8%.

Local bus fares in England increased by 87% between March 2005 and March 2022. Over this period bus fares have risen at a faster rate in metropolitan areas (97%) than in non-metropolitan areas (79%) and London (83%). The all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased by 51% over the same period. See quarterly releases for more detail.

Retail Price Index (RPI) figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that at March 2022 average bus and coach fares in the UK have increased by 566% since the financial year ending 1987, compared to 457% for rail fares and 308% for motoring costs (see chart 14). It should be noted that these figures do also include coach fares which tend to see a seasonal trend for price rises in summer and December. This has contributed to some of the increases observed in the index at times when local bus fares have remained fairly constant, for example the large increases in 2017 and 2020.

Quarterly bus statistics release

The department is reviewing the range of bus statistics that it produces, with a view to modernising these to ensure that they meet user needs. As part of this process, the department outlined their intention to cease the publication of the quarterly bus passenger journey estimates and the quarterly bus statistics report (in html format).

As there was no significant feedback received on this proposal it was decided to enact this change effective from the Winter 2022 to 2023 quarterly release, while continuing to publish the quarterly bus fares statistics, on a quarterly basis, in the form of a table. Further detail on these changes can be found on the bus statistics home page.

Chart 14: Retail Price Index for bus and coach fares, rail fares and motoring expenditure, UK, quarterly since March 1987 (ONS series(DOCX), (DOCW), (CHBK)

Government support

Central and local government support for local bus services has traditionally consisted of payments for supported services, Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) and concessionary travel reimbursement (effectively a subsidy to concessionary passengers).

In addition to this, in response to the impact of the pandemic on the bus sector, there has also been the introduction of the COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG) that ran from April 2020 through to the end of August 2021, after which the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) was introduced on the 1 September 2021. Data for government support comes from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

In the financial year ending 2022, estimated total net support paid in England was £2.9 billion, of which £0.9 billion (31.1%) was for concessionary travel. The amount for concessionary travel is lower compared with a couple of years ago but this is reflective of the lower number of concessionary passengers following the pandemic.

Chart 15 shows total net support for England outside London and London respectively. The figures for England outside London increased up until the financial year ending 2010 before gradually declining until the financial year ending 2021. London has followed a similar pattern over the same period with total net support broadly increasing up until the financial year ending 2010, after which there was a more level trend between the financial years ending 2013 and 2018 before decreasing between the financial years ending 2019 and 2020.

For both England outside London and London there was a large increase in total net support between the financial years ending 2020 and 2021, although this has fallen slightly in the financial year ending 2022 it is still at a level higher than in the financial year ending 2020. The increase between the financial years ending 2020 and 2021 is reflective of the additional support received as a result of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Chart 15: Total net support by central and local government for local bus services and concessionary travel by area type: England, financial years ending 2005 to 2022 (financial year ending 2022 prices, billions) (BUS05bi)

BSOG

This is one form of central government support for buses. The rate at which BSOG is paid was cut by 20% from April 2012. From October 2013, BSOG for London was devolved to Transport for London.

Operator revenue

In the financial year ending 2022, the total estimated operating revenue for local bus services in England was £5.4 billion. Passenger fare receipts made up the largest proportion of operating revenue: £2.3 billion or 42.8% of operating revenue (see chart 16). Revenue from passenger receipts has increased by 84.4% compared with the previous year which was the lowest reported figure and reflects fewer passenger numbers during the pandemic. It is however still 30.6% lower than in the financial year ending 2020 and the years prior to that, indicating that as at the end of the financial year the recovery is short of reaching levels seen before the pandemic.

There was a decrease in BSOG by 50.7% in real terms between the financial years ending 2005 and 2022. In the financial year ending 2005, BSOG made up 8.5% of operating revenue but in the financial year ending 2022 this proportion had fallen to 4.5%. Some of this decrease will be due to BSOG in London being devolved to Transport for London.

Operating revenue from concessionary fare reimbursement has increased by nearly 32% in real terms between the financial years ending 2005 and 2022 from £0.7 billion to £0.9 billion. This increase reflects the wider coverage of the concessionary travel scheme (moving from a local authority to a national scheme), increased eligibility and a larger proportion of elderly people in the wider population.

In addition to this, in response to the impact of the pandemic on the bus sector there has also been the introduction of the COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG) that ran from April 2020 through to the end of August 2021, after which the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) was introduced on the 1 September 2021. In the financial year ending 2022, this accounted for £0.5 billion (8.4%) of the operating revenue for local bus services in England.

Types of revenue for operators

• Fare receipts: on and off bus fares
• Public transport support: the total of all local authorities’ gross costs incurred in support of bus services, either directly or by subsidies to operators or individuals.
• Concessionary reimbursement: from Local authorities. As for carrying concessionary passengers
• BSOG: fuel duty rebate from DfT. Other sources of income excluded.

Chart 16: Operating revenue for local bus services by revenue type: England, financial years ending 2005 and 2022 (financial year ending 2022 prices) (BUS05aii)

Operator costs

In England outside London, between the financial years ending 2005 and 2022, operator costs for local bus services increased from £3.1 billion to £3.2 billion in real terms (see chart 17). This was an average annual real terms increase of 2.9%. However, operator costs have broadly been falling since a high of £3.6 billion in the financial year ending 2010. The pandemic caused a larger decrease to occur and so this meant operating costs actually increased compared to the financial year ending 2021. A more detailed index of bus industry cost is compiled by the Confederation of Passenger Transport.

Chart 17: Operating cost for local bus services: England outside London, the financial years ending 2005 to 2022 (financial year ending 2022 prices) (BUS04eii)

Bus and coach staff and drivers

Bus staff

Local bus operators in England employed an estimated 88,000 full-time equivalent staff, including maintenance and admin staff, as at March 2022 see table BUS07b. This was a decrease of 6.9% compared to 2021 and is based on PSV survey figures.

Figures from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings in the financial year ending 2022 state that bus drivers work on average 40 hours a week, more than the national average of 37 hours a week, and earn £528.10 a week, below the national average of £532.50.

The average age of bus and coach drivers in the financial year ending 2022 was 52, which has increased over time with a lower figure of 47 in the financial year ending 2009 the earliest year for which data is reported. The proportion of drivers that were between 53 to 59 years of age or 60 years of age or over were higher than other groups accounting for 32% and 24% respectively of all bus drivers, as shown in chart 18.

The majority of bus drivers were male at 88%. This was an increase of 4.8% compared to financial year ending 2021.

Chart 18: Age range of bus and coach drivers, England, financial year ending 2021 compared with the financial year ending 2022 (Labour Force Survey)

ONS survey data

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a large study of the employment circumstances of the UK population, run by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The data are defined using the Standard occupational classification system, SOC 2010, as “Bus and coach drivers” (code 8213), which will contain both bus and coach drivers. As the sample size for bus and coach drivers within the LFS is relatively small, it is subject to high variability and error range. As such caution should be used when using this data. These figures are based on January to March 2022 responses. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) provides information on working hours and earnings.

Staff disability awareness training

Recent legislation requiring drivers to be trained in disability awareness came into effect from March 2018. As at March 2022, 99% of bus operators required drivers to meet this requirement.

Bus punctuality data:

Bus punctuality statistics provide one measure of the performance of local bus services based on data reported by local authorities who monitor punctuality using manual surveys or data from electronic systems. There are different measures of punctuality for frequent and non-frequent services: a frequent service is one that has six or more buses per hour. Several areas have no frequent services.

Bus timetable data:

Timetable data provides more detailed information on when and where bus services run, and who operates them, than the other sources in this publication. An analysis of bus timetable data from the Traveline National Dataset was included in the 2016 publication (see page 12 of the release).

Frequent services:

Data on the average excess waiting time for frequent services by local authority in England can be found in table collection BUS09b.

In the financial year ending 2022, 84% of non-frequent services in England ran on time. This was a decrease compared to the financial year ending 2021, which was the highest reported figure since the data was first published (see chart 19). ‘On time’ is defined as between 1 minute early and 5 minutes 59 seconds late.

At the regional level, bus service punctuality varied between 76% and 90%. At the local authority level, there was greater variation ranging between 68% and 100%.

Chart 19: Percentage of non-frequent services running on time: England, financial years ending 2008 to 2022 BUS09a

Map 2: Percentage of non-frequent services running on time: England, financial year ending 2022 BUS09a

Other sources of bus data

The following section contains data on buses from sources other than the PSV or punctuality survey. It comes from a mix of Department for Transport and external sources and is published to different timescales. Below is a brief outline of some of the data sources.

Bus passenger satisfaction

Great Britain outside of London – October 2021 to March 2022

The Transport Focus Bus User Weekly Survey gathers information on levels of satisfaction of bus users with their most recent journey. 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 cannot be made.

In October 2021 to March 2022, 87% of bus passengers making journeys in Great Britain outside London were satisfied with their journey. Satisfaction with the time the journey took was slightly lower, at 85%, while for punctuality, 74% of passengers were satisfied. Amongst passengers aged 18 to 64 years, 63% were satisfied with the value for money of their ticket.

Bus User Weekly Survey

Data from the Bus Users Weekly Survey is managed by the independent transport user watchdog Transport Focus. Note that the statistics from the survey are not National Statistics.

The 2021 survey was conducted across Great Britain using the Wednesday to Friday and weekend waves of Yonder Consulting’s online omnibus (figures shown are for journeys between October 2021 and March 2022). In total, approximately 4,000 adults per week were screened to identify those who had made a journey on a bus outside London in the last seven days (equating to around 500 bus users per week on average). These passengers were then asked about their experiences of travelling by bus outside London and how satisfied they were with their most recent bus journey.

London financial year ending 2022

Transport for London collects satisfaction data on a wide range of bus service features from a sample of passengers every quarter, based on the journey they have just made. In the financial year ending 2022, 78% of bus passengers in London were satisfied with their journey, which is one percentage point higher than the financial year ending 2021 but lower than 85% in the financial year ending 2020.

TfL Customer Satisfaction Survey

More information on bus satisfaction can be found on the TfL website.

National Travel Survey

National Travel Survey (NTS)

The National Travel Survey (NTS) is a household survey carried out on over 16,000 individuals in England every year. However, the results in this release will be based on the 2021 results from a survey of just under 7,000 individuals. The coronavirus pandemic has had a substantial impact on the travel trends in this period. For more information, see the NTS statistics home page.

The NTS gathers data on personal travel behaviour across England. Data from the NTS can be used to analyse the users of local bus services.

On average people:

• make 26 local bus trips per person per year.
• travel 132 miles by local bus per person per year.

• spend 33 minutes per local bus trip in London and 39 minutes per other local bus trip.

  These represent:

• 3.5% of trips across all modes of transport.
• 3.1% of the distance travelled across all modes of transport.

Why do people travel by local bus?

The most common purpose for local bus travel in 2021 was commuting (24.8%). This was also the case in the previous year. As shown in chart 20 below this was closely followed by shopping (21.9%), leisure (21.2%) and education (19%).

Chart 20: Purpose share of local bus trips, 2021 NTS0409

How often do people use local bus services?

Over half of people (64%) rarely use a local bus (less than once a year) whereas a quarter travel by local bus on at least a monthly basis (25%) with the remainder (11%) travelling less than a monthly basis but at least once a year (see chart 21).

Chart 21: Frequency of local bus usage, England, 2021 NTS0313

How long are local bus trips?

In 2021, 45.5% of local bus trips were between 2 and 5 miles (see chart 22). This was almost double the proportion of trips of the same distance travelled by all modes (25.6%). In contrast, 45.8% of trips by all modes were under 2 miles while 13.5% of local bus trips were under 2 miles.

Chart 22: Trip length distribution, for local bus trips and all modes, England, 2021 NTS0308

Who uses local bus services?

Car access

In 2021, on average, people in households without access to a car made over 5 times as many local bus trips than those with access to a car (87 trips per person versus 15 trips per person respectively). Local bus services account for over half of all public transport trips made by people in households without access to a car (52%) and under half of all public transport trips made by people in households with access to a car (47%) (see chart 23).

Chart 23: Local bus trips per person per year by car ownership, England, 2021 NTS0702

Mobility difficulties

In 2021, the number of local bus trips made by adults aged 16 or over with mobility difficulties decreased from 64 trips per person per year in 2011 to 28 trips per person per year (see chart 24). While this has been steadily decreasing over this period, a large decrease was seen between 2019 and 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, this has recovered slightly but is still lower than 39 trips per person in 2019.

In each year for which data has been collected adults with mobility difficulties have used local buses less than people who do not. In 2021 however, the number of bus trips made by adults with mobility difficulties was slightly higher than those people who do not (28 trips per person versus 27 trips per person in 2021). Local bus usage makes up 6% of all trips for adults with mobility difficulties, compared to 2% for those who do not. These figures have decreased from 10% and 6% respectively in 2011.

Chart 24: Local bus trips per person per year, by mobility difficulty, England, 2021 NTS0709

Mobility difficulties:

The NTS definition of having a mobility difficulty is based on those adults who responded to say they have difficulties travelling on foot, by bus or both.

Household income:

In 2021, people in the lowest real income quintile made 44 local bus trips on average, more than any other income quintile, while those in the highest income quintile made the least (16 local bus trips on average).

Age and sex:

In 2021, on average, women made more local bus trips than men at 30 and 23 trips per person per year respectively (see chart 25). This compares to the same number of trips being taken for both men and women in the previous year. For both men and women most trips per year were made by people within the 17 to 20 age group.

Chart 25: Local bus trips per person per year, by age and sex, England, 2021 NTS0601

Other DfT sources containing bus data

Transport Statistics Great Britain (TSGB) - contains additional modal comparisons, as well as providing a single publication containing statistics across all transport themes and modes.

Road accident statistics - provides detailed statistics about reported personal injury road collisions for Great Britain, vehicles and casualties involved.

Speed compliance statistics - contains information on speed compliance with a variable for long and short buses. Also includes distance to vehicle in front.

Road Traffic statistics - Road traffic statistics provide estimates of the vehicle miles travelled each year in Great Britain by vehicle type, road category and region.

Background information

National Bus Strategy

In September 2019, the government set out how it would launch a revolution in bus services – delivering a better deal for bus users and committing to publishing a National Bus Strategy. In February 2020, the Prime Minister announced that bus services across the country would be transformed with simpler fares, thousands of new buses, improved routes and higher frequencies.

Bus Back Better, the national bus strategy for England was published in March 2021 and sets out the vision and opportunity to deliver better bus services for passengers across England, through ambitious and far-reaching reform of how services are planned and delivered.

Users and uses of these statistics

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
• bus punctuality figures to monitor progress for the DfT business plan indicator related to the proportion of buses running on time
• by economists in modelling policy options

Outside DfT known uses include:

• passenger journeys figures are used as a measure of the overall health/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 reports by the Transport Select Committee and Competition Commission;
• bus fares data are used by the Office for National Statistics in calculating the Retail and Consumer Price Indices and in the National Accounts.

National Statistics

These statistics were designated as National Statistics in June 2012. The continued designation was confirmed in February 2013.

National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs. Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release are available.

Local authorities

Local authority areas match the Travel Concession Authorities as set out in the concessionary travel publication, covering 90 areas: the 89 TCAs outside London and London.

Next update to bus statistics

The next annual bus statistics are scheduled to be published in Autumn 2023.

Strengths and weaknesses of the data

These statistics are derived from a number of sources, with the main source being the DfT annual Public Service Vehicle (PSV) survey of over 500 local bus operators which provides data on passenger journeys, vehicle miles, revenue and costs, and vehicles and staff. However, certain statistics (for example annual statistics on bus fares) are derived from smaller surveys of the larger bus operators, or from local authorities. Information on passenger journeys and bus mileage for London is provided by Transport for London.

Many of these statistics have been collected on a broadly comparable basis from operators for many years. However, following revisions to the methodology used to compile the published figures, the financial year ending 2005 is the earliest year for which figures are comparable on exactly the same basis.

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.

For the key indicators (passenger journeys and vehicle miles operated) the data provided by operators covers around 95% of the total figure, with the remainder imputed. This will also have an impact on previous year’s data, where more up to date information is used to impute data, usually limited to the 2 preceding years and changes of under 1% to previously reported figures. In rare occurrences we receive corrections to previous data which may change figures to a more significant level particularly at local authority level, including re-allocations across local authority boundaries.

Comparison with other sources suggests that, at aggregate (national) level, the statistics 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) which are more likely to even out at the national level. This has been more relevant in recent years as many companies have switched to ticketing machines and data solutions to record key data.

As such, regional and particularly local authority level figures should be interpreted with caution. Local authority level data will change between boundaries and it is not always possible to backdate the changes. Further details of the data sources and methods used in the production of these statistics can be found in the background quality report.

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Contact details

Bus statistics

Email bus.statistics@dft.gov.uk

Public enquiries 020 7082 6602

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878