Released by the Department of Transport (DfT), the annual statistics on local buses for the year ending March 2024, saw the number of bus passenger journeys increase by 7%.
Key points from the report:
- local bus passenger journeys increase by 0.2 billion (7%) to 3.6 billion. This is still lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic
- journeys increased by 5% in London, which account for 51% of all passenger journeys made by local buses in England
- journeys increased by 10% (1.8 billion) in England outside of London. This continues the recovery from the previous year, reaching 91% of pre-pandemic levels
- bus fares saw an increase of 3% in England. The £2 fare cap for single tickets, introduced in January 2023, was in place throughout this period, so this increase reflects changes to other fare products (such as season tickets)
- concessionary journeys (elderly or disabled, and youth concessions) made up 28% (1 billion passenger journeys) of all local bus passenger journeys. The percentage has decreased in recent years: 29% (22/23) and 32% before the COVID-19 pandemic (19/20)
- 80% of non-frequent services ran on time, continuing the downward trend from 20/21
- 80% of bus passengers making journeys in England outside London were satisfied with their journey. Satisfaction with the time the journey took was at 81%, while for punctuality, 70% of passengers were satisfied. Fare paying passengers, 67% were satisfied with the value for money of their ticket
- 39 local bus trips per person per year are made (14 trips per person on buses in London and 25 trips per person on buses outside London)
- the most common purpose for local bus travel was shopping (23%) followed by commuting (22%) and leisure (21%)
Read the full report on DfT website: annual bus statistics 2023/2024
