National statistics

Annual bus statistics: year ending March 2023 (revised)

Updated 19 March 2024

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Finalised data on government support for buses was not available when these statistics were originally published (30 November 2023). The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) have since published that data so the following have been revised to include this newly available data:

• the financial outlook in this publication
• tables BUS04i and BUS04ii covering costs, fares and revenue
• tables BUS05i and BUS05ii covering government support

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 derived 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 published tables.

These are accredited official statistics and were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in June 2012. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. For more information, see the About these statistics section.

Headline figures

The number of local bus passenger journeys in England saw an increase of 0.5 billion (19.3%) to 3.4 billion in the year ending March 2023. This was lower than before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic when passenger journeys in the year ending March 2020 for England were 4.1 billion.

Bus mileage in England saw a decrease when compared to the year ending March 2022 of 49.8 million miles (4.6%). Bus mileage was less severely impacted than passenger journeys during the COVID-19 pandemic, 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. The decline in bus mileage compared to the previous year may reflect how bus operators have adjusted operations and how they run services as the industry adapts post pandemic.

Summary

Table 1 summarises the annual figures for bus passenger journeys and mileage for the year ending March 2023, including comparisons with the previous year (year ending March 2022) and 2 years ago (year ending March 2021). Figures are broken down by London, England outside London (metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan areas), country and GB.

Table 1: Summary figures for bus passenger journeys in Great Britain by area type, the year ending March 2023 (BUS01), (BUS02a_mi)

Area	Passenger Journeys (billions)	Percentage change compared to previous year	Percentage change compared to 2 years ago	Vehicle Mileage (billions)	Percentage change compared to previous year	Percentage change compared to 2 years ago
London	1.8	+19.6%	+106.3%	0.3	-3.4%	-1.3%
English metropolitan areas	0.7	+18.4%	+111.4%	0.2	-7.5%	+2.1%
English non-metropolitan areas	0.9	+19.4%	+133.4%	0.5	-3.9%	+11.3%
England	3.4	+19.3%	+114.1%	1	-4.6%	+5.3%
England outside London	1.6	+19%	+123.4%	0.7	-5.1%	+8%
Scotland	0.3	+29%	+140.6%	0.2	-4.5%	+8.6%
Wales	0.1	+15.8%	+135.3%	0.1	0.2%	+29.6%
Great Britain	3.7	+20%	+116.4%	1.2	-4.4%	+6.6%

Concessionary travel

In the year ending March 2023 total concessionary journeys (elderly or disabled, and youth concessions) made up 31.1% (1053 million passenger journeys) of all local bus passenger journeys in England see tables (BUS01c and BUS01d). The percentage is slightly lower when compared with the year ending March 2022 (32.7%) and the year ending March 2020 (33.6%). In England outside London, total concessionary journeys made up 29.3% of all passenger journeys in the year ending March 2023. This was lower than in London where the figure was 32.9%.

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 53% of public transport journeys NTS0303.

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). Transport for Greater Manchester has also brought in a bus franchising scheme, which forms part of their wider plan for an integrated public transport network, with the launch of their Bee Network.

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 coronavirus (COVID-19) impact

This publication covers data for the year ending March 2023, which is the first time since COVID-19 that movement restrictions have not impacted the data. However, the sector is still recovering following the impact in previous years.

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. Bus performance 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 bus passenger boardings and service provision

Data provided by Ticketer shows the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on bus passenger journeys and service provision. The more recent figures indicate that in the year ending March 2023 bus passenger journeys have increased to their highest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic started, whilst bus service provision has decreased slightly since the year ending March 2022 and stabilised at around 85%.

Chart 1: 7-day average of bus passenger boardings and service provision in England, excluding London, compared to the same day in the 3rd week of January 2020

Daily bus 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. During the first UK lockdown (represented by the May 2020 graph below) and in January 2021 when movement restrictions were reintroduced (albeit less strict than those in place in 2020) the distribution shifted, with passenger boardings at their highest in the middle of the day. In January 2022, the distribution started to resemble that of January 2020 again, and January 2023 still resembles a similar distribution.

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

Passenger journeys

England

In the year ending March 2023, there were 3.4 billion passenger journeys made by local bus in England, an increase of 0.5 billion or 19.3% compared with the year ending March 2022. Chart 3 shows the trend in local bus journeys in England between the year ending March 2005 and the year ending March 2023. Over this period bus use saw a slight increase through to the year ending March 2009, after which it remained fairly stable until the year ending March 2015, before gradually beginning to fall. In the year ending March 2021 there was a steep decline because of movement restrictions introduced throughout the year to reduce the spread of COVID-19. In the year ending March 2022 bus use started to recover albeit was still around a third less than in the year ending March 2020 and this recovery has continued into the year ending March 2023 with bus use around 16.9% lower than the year ending March 2020.

Chart 3: Local bus passenger journeys (billions) in England, the year ending March 2005 to 2023 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 2 area types.

Different dis-aggregations are available in the data tables published alongside the release, including local authority level and for urban and rural areas.

London

Passenger journeys in London accounted for 52.2% of all passenger journeys made by local buses in England in the year ending March 2023. There were 1.8 billion passenger journeys made by local buses in London in the year ending March 2023, an increase of 19.6% compared with the year ending March 2022. Before the year ending March 2013, bus use in London increased every year since the year ending March 2005, before starting to gradually decline (see chart 4).

England outside London

In the year ending March 2023, there were 1.6 billion passenger journeys made by local buses in England outside London, an increase of 19%. This continues the recovery from the previous year, however it is still below pre-pandemic levels. 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 year ending March 2009 (see chart 4).

Chart 4: Local bus passenger journeys (billions) in England outside London and London, the year ending March 2005 to 2023 (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: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. Non-metropolitan areas cover the remaining county councils and unitary authorities in England outside London.

In metropolitan areas, there were 0.7 billion passenger journeys in the year ending March 2023, an increase of 18.4% from the year ending March 2022. In non-metropolitan areas, there were 0.9 billion passenger journeys, an increase of 19.4% from the year ending March 2022.

Chart 5: Local bus passenger journeys (billions) in England outside London by area type, the year ending March 2005 to 2023 (BUS01a)

Bus use by local authority

The 2 bar charts in chart 6 show the local authorities with the highest and lowest passenger journeys per head of population in the year ending March 2023 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, the year ending March 2023 (BUS01f)

The average number of bus passenger journeys per head in England outside London was 34 in the year ending March 2023, this is higher than the previous year but lower than in the year ending March 2020, where the figure was 42. The peak number of bus passenger journeys per head in England outside London was 55 in the year ending March 2009 (see table BUS01b).

There were falls across all local authorities between the year ending March 2020 and the year ending March 2021, with coronavirus the main factor in this. In comparison between the year ending March 2022 and the year ending March 2023, there were increases across most 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, the year ending March 2021 to 2023 (BUS01f)

About the data

The bus passenger journeys per head figures presented here are estimates based on returns provided by bus operators. 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 in this release. 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 year ending March 2023, there were 1 billion bus service miles run in England, a slight decrease of 4.6% when compared with the year ending March 2022 and 10.6% lower than the year ending March 2020.

In England outside London, bus mileage saw a decrease of 5.1% compared to the year ending March 2022 but was 13% lower than in the year ending March 2020. In London, bus mileage also saw a small decrease of 3.4% compared to the year ending March 2022. London bus mileage has changed very little since the year ending March 2005, fluctuating between around 282 and 304 million vehicle miles.

Bus mileage was less severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic than passenger journeys. This was largely due to CBSSG which was then followed by BRG which were both introduced to keep services running that may have otherwise operated at a loss, or not operated at all. The decline in bus mileage compared to the previous year may reflect how bus operators have adjusted operations and how they run services as the industry adapts post pandemic.

Chart 7: Vehicle miles (billions) on local bus services by area type: England, the year ending March 2005 to 2023 (BUS02a_mi)

Commercial and local authority supported bus mileage: England outside London

In England outside London, bus mileage is 28% lower than year ending March 2005. This has been driven by a decrease of 46.7% in local authority supported mileage, in particular in non-metropolitan areas.

In general, between the year ending March 2005 and the year ending March 2017 commercial mileage increased slightly before gradually decreasing until the year ending March 2020. In the year ending March 2021 there was a steep decrease due to COVID-19, followed by a small increase in the year ending March 2022. The latest figures for commercial mileage show there was a decrease by 7.8% between the year ending March 2022 and the year ending March 2023, however this is still above the year ending March 2021 when figures were impacted by COVID-19. Chart 8 shows these changes over time for commercial bus mileage.

Supported mileage as a percentage of total mileage in England outside London gradually increased from 21.7% in the year ending March 2005 before starting to gradually decrease from the year ending March 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 year ending March 2022. Between the year ending March 2023 and the year ending March 2022 local authority supported mileage saw an increase of 12.3%. This is in contrast with commercial mileage, which saw a decrease over the same period. This may reflect an adjustment, in terms of post-covid recovery, with operators choosing to remove certain non-viable services and local authorities picking up some of these to support.

Chart 8: Vehicle miles (billions) on local bus services by service type: England outside London, the year ending March 2005 to 2023 (BUS02a_mi)

Vehicles

The information below summarises the annual figures for the number of buses used by local operators in England.

As at March 2023, there were 30,154 buses used by local operators, of which:

• 8,788 buses were in London
• 96% had CCTV
• 22% had charging points
• 25% had free WiFi
• 93% were enabled for payment by contactless bank card
• 94% of buses in England outside London were ITSO smart enabled
• 99% had been issued with an accessibility certificate
• 98% had an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) device
• 49% provided audio visual information
• 61% met Euro VI emission standards in England (87% met these standards in London)
• 76% were diesel engines (excluding hybrid)

AVL, ITSO and EMV

Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) 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. 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.

Bus fleet

There was a decrease in the number of buses used by local bus operators in England by 3.8% from 31,358 as at March 2022 to 30,154 as at March 2023. The highest proportion of buses used by local bus operators was in non-metropolitan areas with 45% (see chart 9).

Chart 9: Proportion of buses used by local bus operators by area type: England, March 2023 (BUS06b)

The most common year of manufacture for a bus operated in England in the year ending March 2023 was 2016, with 2,538 having being manufactured in that year.

Chart 10: Number of buses by age of manufacture: England, March 2023 (BUS06b, 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 year ending March 2023, 99% of buses in England had been issued with an accessibility certificate, for more information see table BUS06d.

Equipment on buses

In the last 16 years, the provision of CCTV and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) devices on buses has greatly improved. As at March 2023, the proportion of buses used by local operators in England that were equipped with CCTV was 96%, up from 44% in year ending March 2006.

Almost all buses were fitted with an AVL device (98% of buses in England, compared with 35% in year ending March 2007). Of all buses in England, 97% of AVL devices were being used to monitor punctuality and 96% used the AVL device to provide real time service information to customers as at March 2023.

A quarter (25%) of buses in England had free WiFi as at March 2023, which was a decrease compared to both March 2022 and March 2021 where the figure was 28%. This continues a gradual downward trend from year ending March 2020 (31%) prior to which figures had been increasing. This may be a result of operators deciding not to offer WiFi as a cost saving measure.

As at March 2023, 93% of buses in England were EMV smart card enabled (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 92% as at March 2022 (see chart 11 for the trends of technology changes over time). As at March 2023 the proportion of buses used by local bus operators in England outside London were ITSO smart enabled for payment was 94%, up from 25% in year ending March 2011.

As at March 2023, around half (49%) of buses in England provided Audio Visual information to passengers. However, this total varies greatly in different parts of the country, 97% of buses in London provide Audio Visual information, while only 29% of buses in England outside London provided Audio Visual information. The figure for England outside London has risen every year since March 2013 when it was 7%. Also as at March 2023, there were 37% of buses in England that used the Audio Visual information system to provide route, direction, next stop and diversion information to passengers.

Chart 11: Percentage of buses fitted with CCTV, AVL, Audio Visual and EMV smart enabled: England, the year ending March 2023 compared with previous years (BUS06d)

Bus fuel type and emission standards

As at March 2023 there were 61% of buses in England that met the latest Euro VI emissions standards. A further 18% and 6% of buses met older Euro V and Euro IV standards, respectively. London had higher emissions standards than the rest of England with 87% meeting Euro VI standards (chart 12).

Emissions standards

The emission standards for trucks (lorries) and buses are defined by engine energy output in grams per kilowatt hour (g/kWh); this is unlike the emission standards for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, which are defined by vehicle driving distance in grams per kilometre (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.

Chart 12: Percentage of local buses by Emissions standards in England, the year ending March 2023 (BUS06e)

As at March 2023, the proportion of all buses in England that had a diesel fuel engine was 76%. A further 15% were diesel-hybrid engine, 4% were electric and a very small proportion were hydrogen (chart 13).

There is a difference between the percentage of buses categorised as diesel hybrid for bus emissions and bus fuel type. This is due to some degree of overlap in the categorisations used for the question on bus emissions in the survey. For example a bus that is a diesel hybrid can also be retrofitted from Euro V to Euro VI. Therefore different interpretations have been made on what the most accurate category is for the buses in an operator’s fleet, which has in turn led to the percentages for the diesel category to differ.

Chart 13: Percentage of local buses by fuel type in England, the year ending March 2023 (BUS06e)

Financial outlook

Bus fares

The local bus fares index saw a decrease of 2.1% in England between March 2022 and March 2023 (see table BUS04di), stopping the upward trend that has been seen since 2005. This is likely driven most by the £2 fare cap that came into effect in England outside London from January 2023. This compares with a 10.1% increase in the annual all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate over the same 12-month period. This means bus fares have fallen in real terms, and when adjusted for inflation fares in England outside London are comparable to those seen in 2007.

For other areas, the local bus fares index change was:

• 6% increase in London
• 4.3% decrease in metropolitan areas
• 11.4% decrease in non-metropolitan areas
• 7.9% decrease in England outside London

Retail Price Index (RPI) figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that by Q1 (January to March) 2023, average bus and coach fares in the UK have increased by 474% since Q1 1987, compared to 378% for rail fares and 231% for motoring costs.

It should be noted that the bus and coach fares 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 bus and coach fares index at times when local bus fares have remained fairly constant, for example the large increases in 2017 and 2020.

Chart 14: Retail Price Index for bus and coach fares, rail fares and motoring expenditure, UK, quarterly since March 1987 (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). Data for government support comes from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

In addition to this, in response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the bus sector, the following schemes were introduced:

• COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG) from April 2020 to the end of August 2021
• Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) from 1 September 2021
• the £2 fare cap scheme from January 2023

In the year ending March 2023, estimated total net support paid in England was £2.2 billion, of which £0.7 billion (32.1%) was for concessionary travel.

In England outside London, estimated total net support increased until the year ending March 2010, before gradually declining until the year ending March 2020 (see chart 15). London has followed a similar pattern over this period, peaking in the year ending March 2009 and stabilising between the year ending March 2013 and 2019, before decreasing in the year ending March 2020.

For both England outside London and London, there was a large annual increase in estimated total net support in the year ending March 2021, impacted by the government response to the coronavirus pandemic. In the following year, estimated total net support fell, but was still higher than figures seen in preceding years. In the year ending March 2023, estimated total net support returned to pre-pandemic levels (March 2023 prices), in England outside London at £1.3 billion and in London at £0.9 billion.

In England outside London, estimated total net support per passenger journey in the year ending March 2023 was 81p, an increase of 12.2% compared to the year ending March 2020 (adjusting for inflation) and remains above pre-pandemic levels, largely due to additional funding schemes introduced from 2020 onwards and lower levels of passenger journeys.

Chart 15: Estimated total net support by central and local government for local bus services and concessionary travel by area type: England, year ending March 2005 to 2023 (March 2023 prices, £ billions) (BUS05bii)

Operator revenue

In the year ending March 2023, the estimated total operating revenue for local bus services in England was £5.5 billion.

There are several 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 for carrying concessionary passengers

BSOG: fuel duty rebate from DfT as part 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. Other sources of income excluded

CBSSG: set up to support commercial bus operators in England in recognition of the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) on their revenue due to reduced patronage

BRG: The Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) was set up to support commercial bus operators in England, after CBSSG ended, due to the ongoing impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) on their revenue from reduced patronage

£2 fare cap scheme: supports bus operators to implement a £2 cap on eligible single tickets for adults. The scheme started in January 2023 in England.

In the year ending March 2023, passenger fare receipts had an increase of 26.9% to £3.1 billion which continues the recovery from the previous year. However, this was still 12.1% lower than in the year ending March 2020 (adjusting for inflation) and remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Chart 16: Operating revenue for local bus services by revenue type: England, the year ending March 2005 to 2023 (March 2023 prices, £ billions) (BUS05aii)

BSOG for London was devolved to Transport for London (TfL) from October 2013, so the BSOG figures in Chart 16 shown only reflects payments to that date. Any payments made to operators by TfL after October 2013 will be included within the ‘Gross Public Transport Support’ figure.

In England outside London, there was a decrease in BSOG by 48.6% in real terms between the year ending March 2005 and 2023. BSOG is largely paid according to fuel used and distance travelled, so this is partially explained by the 28% decline in bus mileage over the same period. In the year ending March 2005, BSOG made up 6.3% of operating revenue but in the year ending March 2023 this proportion had fallen to 3.6%.

Operating revenue from concessionary fare reimbursement had a decrease of 2% in real terms between the year ending March 2005 and 2023, down to £0.7 billion. Concessionary fare reimbursement has been affected by:

• wider coverage of the concessionary travel scheme (moving from a local authority to a national scheme)
• increased eligibility
• a larger proportion of elderly people in the wider population
• the slower recovery of concessionary journeys (compared to all passenger journeys) after the coronavrius pandemic

In the year ending March 2023, CBSSG and BRG accounted for £0.2 billion (2.8%) of the operating revenue for local bus services in England.

Operating costs

In England outside London, operating costs in the year ending March 2023 for local bus services are at £3.3 billion when adjusted for inflation. This is at a similar level to the year ending March 2005 (see chart 17), with an average annual increase in real terms of 0.1%.

Operating costs have broadly been falling since a high of £3.8 billion in the year ending March 2010 to year ending March 2012. The pandemic caused a larger decrease to occur and so this meant operating costs actually increased in the year ending March 2022 compared to the year ending March 2021. However, in the latest year, operating costs had a decrease when compared to the previous year and the year ending March 2020 indicating a continuation of the longer-term downward trend. A more detailed index of bus industry cost is compiled by the Confederation of Passenger Transport.

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 had been deducted and others after. This means some operators were underreporting operating costs as we request these figures to be provided before BSOG is deducted. Additional work has been undertaken this year to highlight the guidance to operators and check during the validation process if they are reporting in line with the guidance.

This means the year ending March 2023 data is not directly comparable with earlier years.

Chart 17: Operating costs for local bus services: England outside London, the year ending March 2005 to 2023 (March 2023 prices, £ billions) (BUS04eii)

Bus and coach staff and drivers

Bus staff

Local bus operators in England employed an estimated 87,000 full-time equivalent staff, including maintenance and admin staff, as at March 2023, see table BUS07b. This was a decrease of 1.1% compared to 2022 and is based on PSV survey figures.

Bus drivers

Figures from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings in the year ending March 2023 state that the median number of hours that bus drivers work is 40 hours a week, more than the national median figure of 37 hours a week, and earn £541.80 a week, below the national median figure of £561.80.

The average age of bus and coach drivers for the period 2020 to 2022 was 52, which has increased slightly over time with a lower figure of 49 for the period covering 2013 to 2015. The majority (52%) of bus and coach drivers were aged 53 or over in the period covering 2020 to 2022. This is an increase from 44% in the period covering 2013 to 2015.

The majority of bus drivers were male (91%) for the period 2020 to 2022, which is at a similar level to the period covering 2013 to 2015.

Chart 18: Age range of bus and coach drivers, England, 2013 to 2015 compared with 2020 to 2022 (Annual Population Survey)

ONS survey data

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a combined survey of households in Great Britain. Its purpose is to provide information on key social and socio-economic 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 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) provides information on working hours and earnings.

Staff disability awareness training

Legislation requiring drivers to be trained in disability awareness came into effect from March 2018. As at March 2023, the proportion of bus operators that required drivers to meet this requirement was at 96%.

Bus punctuality

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 6 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 year ending March 2023, the percentage of non-frequent services in England that ran on time was at 80%. This was the lowest reported figure since the year ending March 2009, a decrease compared to the year ending March 2022 and continuing the downward trend from the year ending March 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 in the year ending March 2023 varied between 75% and 87%. At the local authority level, there was greater variation ranging between 62% and 99%.

Chart 19: Percentage of non-frequent services running on time: England, the year ending March 2008 to 2023 BUS09a

Map 2: Percentage of non-frequent services running on time: England, the year ending March 2023 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 DfT 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 – the year ending March 2023

The Transport Focus Bus User Weekly Survey gathers information on levels of satisfaction of bus users with their most recent journey. This survey started after the pandemic while an updated version of their original Bus Passenger Survey was being developed. Direct comparisons with the previous Bus Passenger Survey data cannot be made.

In the year ending March 2023, there were 86% of bus passengers making journeys in Great Britain outside London that were satisfied with their journey. Satisfaction with the time the journey took was slightly lower, at 84%, while for punctuality, 73% of passengers were satisfied. Amongst passengers aged 18 to 64 years, 64% 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 accredited official statistics.

The survey during the year ending March 2023 was conducted across Great Britain using Yonder Consulting’s online weekend omnibuses (figures shown are for surveys between April 2022 and March 2023). In total, approximately 2000 adults per week were screened to identify those who had made a journey on a bus outside London in the last 7 days (providing just over 300 bus users typically 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.

TfL Customer Satisfaction Survey - London - the year ending March 2023

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 year ending March 2023, there were 78% of bus passengers in London that were satisfied with their journey, which is the same as the year ending March 2022 and one percentage point higher than the year ending March 2021 but lower than 85% in the year ending March 2020.

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

National Travel Survey - 2022

The National Travel Survey (NTS) is a household survey. The data collection consists of a face-to-face interview and a 7 day self-completed written travel diary, allowing travel patterns to be linked with individual characteristics. The survey covers travel by people in all age groups, including children. During 2022, 8,087 individuals within 3,646 households in England participated fully in the NTS by providing information through an interview and completing a 7-day travel diary.

Fieldwork for the NTS 2022 survey continued to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, with data collection operating using the same knock-to-nudge method as in 2021 for the first 3 months of 2022 due to the emergence of the Omicron variant in late 2021. From April onwards, the survey returned to operating a face-to-face methodology with a phone back-up where this was not possible.

The National Travel Survey (NTS) gathers data on personal travel behaviour by residents of England travelling within Great Britain. Data from the NTS can be used to analyse the users of local bus services.

On average people:

• make 38 local bus trips per person per year
• travel 175 miles by local bus per person per year
• spend 33 minutes per local bus trip in London and 37 minutes per other local bus trip

These represent:

• 4.4% of trips across all modes of transport
• 3.3% of the distance traveled across all modes of transport

Why do people travel by local bus?

The most common purpose for local bus travel in 2022 was Education or escort education (27%). This was also the case in the previous year. As shown in Chart 20 below this was closely followed by commuting (21%), shopping (20%) and leisure (20%).

Chart 20: Purpose share of local bus trips, 2022 NTS0409

How often do people use local bus services?

Over half of people (54%) rarely use a local bus (less than once a year) whereas 20% travel at least once a week by local bus, with the remainder (26%) travelling on less than a weekly basis but at least once a year.

Chart 21: Frequency of local bus usage, England, 2022 NTS0313

How long are local bus trips?

In 2022, 48% of local bus trips were between 2 and 5 miles. This was almost double the proportion of trips of the same distance traveled by all modes (25%). In contrast, 46% of trips by all modes were under 2 miles while 19% of local bus trips were under 2 miles.

Chart 22: Trip length distribution, for local bus trips and all modes, England, 2022 NTS0308

Who uses local bus services?

In 2022, on average, people in households without access to a car made over 6 times as many local bus trips than those with access to a car (131 trips per person compared to 20 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 (62%) and under half of all public transport trips made by people in households with access to a car (45%).

Chart 23: Local bus trips per person per year by car ownership, England, 2022 NTS0702

Mobility difficulties

In 2022, the number of local bus trips made by adults aged 16 or over with mobility difficulties decreased from a high of 67 trips per person per year in 2008 to 39 trips per person per year. While this has been steadily decreasing over this period, a large decrease was seen between 2019 and 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the last 2 years this has however recovered to a similar level to 2019.

In each year prior to 2021, adults with mobility difficulties have used local buses less than people who do not. In both 2021 and 2022, however, the number of bus trips made by adults with mobility difficulties was slightly higher than those people who do not with (39 trips per person compared to 37 trips per person in 2022). Local bus usage makes up 7% of all trips for adults with mobility difficulties, compared to 4% for those who do not. These figures were 10% and 6% respectively in 2008.

Care should be taken when interpreting this data and comparing to other years, due to changes in the methodology of data collection, changes in travel behaviour and a reduction of data collected during 2020 to 2022, as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Chart 24: Local bus trips per person per year, by mobility difficulty, England, 2022 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 2022, people in the lowest real income quintile made 71 local bus trips on average, more than any other income quintile, while those in the fourth highest income quintile made the least (23 local bus trips on average).

Age and sex - In 2022, on average, females made more local bus trips than males at 44 and 31 trips per person per year respectively. Both these figures show increases when compared to the previous year. Females also made more local bus trips in 2021 which is consistent with previous years apart from 2020 where the same number of trips were taken by both males and females. This looks to be due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. When considering the number of trips made by different age groups, for both males and females those aged 17 to 20 made the highest number of local bus trips per person.

Chart 25: Local bus trips per person per year, by age and sex, England, 2022 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 casualty statistics - provides detailed statistics about reported personal injury road collisions for Great Britain, including 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 traveled 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 DfT, 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 and 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
• bus fares data are used by the ONS in calculating the Retail and Consumer Price Indices and in the National Accounts

About these statistics

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in June 2012. The continued designation was confirmed in February 2013.

They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

Some ministers and officials receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release.

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 year ending March 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.

Next release

The next annual bus statistics are due to be published in late 2024. The latest quarterly bus fares statistics for October to December 2023 was released on 19 March 2024. The next release of quarterly fare statistics for January to March 2024 is scheduled for release in June 2024.

Any updates to these plans will be advertised via the DfT statistical publications schedule.

To hear more about DfT statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter) at DfTstats.

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Bus statistics

Email bus.statistics@dft.gov.uk

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