Official Statistics

Domestic Transport Usage by Mode

Updated 10 June 2026

These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. More information about these statistics can be found in the methodology note.

Planned changes to future releases

The department has reviewed this statistical publication series and identified changes we believe would increase the value of the series for users. These changes are detailed in the Daily domestic transport use by mode publication document which also includes a link to a survey in which users can provide their views on the proposals. The survey will close for responses at 5pm on Thursday 16 July.

Usage of transport by mode from June 2025

Usage is shown as a percentage of pre-COVID-19 baseline; baselines used vary between modes (see the methodology note for further information). For rail, usage is shown as a 7-day rolling average ending on the indicated date. For all other modes, daily usage for weekdays (excluding bank holidays) is shown.

National Rail data from August 2024 remains provisional until updated adjustment factors for the Elizabeth line are available.

Figure 1: Transport usage as a proportion of pre-COVID-19 levels, Great Britain, June 2025 to June 2026

Description of figure 1: This figure presents a series of 5 line charts which show transport usage as a proportion of pre-COVID-19 levels, for motor vehicles, buses (excluding London), National Rail (excluding the Elizabeth line) and Transport for London (tube and buses) over the last 12 months. The demand on the above transport modes have generally stabilised to new levels, reflecting usage unaffected by COVID-19. Over the past year, public transport mode usage (National Rail, buses and TfL) has generally remained below pre-COVID-19 levels, whereas motor vehicles usage has settled close to pre-COVID-19 levels.

For all modes, usage fluctuates day-to-day, and bus usage outside of London is heavily impacted by school holidays throughout the year. Sharp changes in modal usage are as a result of weather events, industrial action or other events. More detail about this can be found in the footnotes of the published data table.

Table 1 below compares the range of usage during the current and previous publishing periods^{[footnote 1]} for each mode as a percentage of the pre-COVID-19 baseline. For all modes except rail, transport usage excludes weekends and bank holidays, with rail presenting a 7-day rolling average of usage for all days.

The exclusion of weekends and bank holidays for all modes except rail, is to prevent direct comparisons between these days and weekdays. This is because usage over weekends and bank holidays is less representative of typical weekday usage patterns (see the methodology note for further information). Weekend usage across all modes provided in this series is available in the tables that accompany this release.

The publishing periods vary between some modes due to data lags, which are specified in Table 1.

Table 1: Latest transport usage, by mode

Mode	Publishing period	Latest usage at date	Commentary
Rail (GB excluding Elizabeth Line)	4 May to 31 May 2026	91% (Sunday 31 May 2026)	Passenger journeys in the week ending Sunday 31 May 2026 were 91% of those observed in the equivalent week in 2019. In the current publishing period weekly average usage figures have been between 86% to 109%, compared to 92% to 107% in the last publishing period. These figures exclude Elizabeth Line services usage.
Bus (GB excluding London)	12 May to 8 Jun 2026	81% (Monday 8 June 2026)	Bus boardings outside of London on Monday 8 June 2026 were 81% of the volume observed on the equivalent day in the third week of January 2020. This is 3 percentage points lower compared to the equivalent day in the previous year (84% on Monday 9 June 2025). In the current publishing period weekday bus usage has been between 71% to 88% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 78% to 90% in the last publishing period.
London Bus	9 May to 5 Jun 2026	85% (Friday 5 June 2026)	TfL bus boardings on Friday 5 June 2026 were 85% of the equivalent day in 2019. In the current publishing period weekday TfL bus usage has been between 70% to 88% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 81% to 97% in the last publishing period.
London Tube	9 May to 5 Jun 2026	78% (Friday 5 June 2026)	Tube entries and exits on Friday 5 June 2026 were 78% of the equivalent day in 2019. In the current and previous publishing periods, there were strikes on TfL tube which affected usage. Weekday tube usage in the current publishing period has been between 49% to 88% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 47% to 85% in the last publishing period.
Motor Traffic (GB)	12 May to 8 Jun 2026	106% (Monday 8 June 2026)	On Monday 8 June 2026 traffic volumes were 106% of the levels during the first week of February 2020. This is 1 percentage point higher compared to the equivalent day in the previous year (105% on Monday 9 June 2025). Weekday usage in this publishing period has been between 102% to 109% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to 100% to 107% in the last publishing period.

1. National Rail and TfL data are lagged compared to other modes due to the availability of data at time of publishing. For National Rail, the current period covers Monday 4 May 2026 to Sunday 31 May 2026, while the previous publishing period covers Monday 6 April 2026 to Sunday 3 May 2026. For TfL data, the current period covers Saturday 9 May 2026 to Friday 5 June 2026, while the previous publishing period covers Saturday 11 April 2026 to Friday 8 May 2026. ↩