DfT report highlights that fares are rising ahead of inflation, though passenger numbers are stable
The Department for Transport has released quarterly bus statistics for the first quarter of 2015.
The provisional number of local bus passenger journeys in England was unchanged on the previous year at 4.7 billion. This included a slight increase in London and a small decrease in England outside of the capital.
In the year to March 2015, local bus fares have increased by 3.3%, 2.4% ahead of the annual all items retail prices index rate of inflation, which stood at 0.9%. Between March 2010 and March 2015, the average annual percentage change in bus fares was 4.5% higher than the average annual rate of inflation (3.1%). Metropolitan areas have seen the greatest increase, increasing by 71% since March 2005, while non-metropolitan areas saw a 44% increase over the same period, for which overall inflation was 35%. This means fares have increased in real terms.
The report also highlighted that the cost of using the bus has increased ahead of the cost of motoring over the year to March 2015. The price of purchasing a car decreased by 1.6% while the price of petrol and oil dropped by 13.4%.
Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has responded to the release of the quarterly statistics.
Martin Abrams, Public Transport Campaigner, Campaign for Better Transport said:
“Bus users are finding themselves faced with the double whammy of having to endure ever rising bus fares while at the same time facing more and more cuts to essential bus services.
“Our research shows that in this year alone £9m worth of cuts to local authority funding for supported bus services have been proposed or agreed across the country, leaving many people in rural areas with little or no bus services. We need to see more affordable fares and a stop to the devastating cuts to essential services to ensure people can use their local bus to access jobs, education, shops and hospitals.”
