The Department for Transport (DfT) has released its annual England bus statistics for 2015/16.
The total number of bus passenger journeys in the year ended March 31, 2016, fell by 119 million on the previous year, a decrease of 2.6% to 4.53 billion. This drop was fuelled by a 3% drop in bus use in London, along with a 2.1% decrease outside London, continuing a steady decline in bus use across England. Metropolitan areas saw a 2.5% decrease, while non-metropolitan areas saw a smaller 1.7% decrease.
The decline in London represented the first decrease since 2012/13, though mileage in London was up 0.6%.
Over the same period, fares increased by 1.8%, 0.2% ahead of inflation according to the Retail Prices Index (1.6%). This was a substantial decrease in the rate of fare increases, which has averaged 3.8% higher than the average annual inflation rate (2.3%) since 2011.
Bus mileage in England decreased by 2% compared to the previous year to 1.25 billion miles, largely because of a 12.3% decrease in mileage on local authority supported services in England outside London. Commercial mileage also decreased by 0.8%. This was a reversal of a recent trend, where commercial mileage would increase as supported mileage went down, and the first time commercial mileage has decreased since 2009/10.
Mileage decreased the most in metropolitan areas, where it was down 2.9%, while it decreased by 2.7% in non-metropolitan areas.
The statistics revealed that the bus network is at its most accessible point ever, with 94% of buses holding an accessibility certificate.
The average number of bus journeys per head in England outside London was 49, down from 53 in 2010/11. Out of 88 local authorities, 69 saw a decrease in bus use per head over the same period. Reading was the region which appeared to buck the trend the most, with passenger journeys per head of population rising from around 110 to around 126. To the other extreme, Rutland’s bus services now number just 1.8 journeys per head of population, down from 5.9 in 2010/11.
On punctuality, 82.6% of non-frequent services ran on time, an improvement on 81.4% the previous year.
The total estimated operating revenue for local bus services was £5.61bn, with passenger fare receipts making up 59% of this figure. BSOG has decrease by 43% in real terms since 2004/05, when it made up 9% of operating revenue. It made up 4% in 2013/14. Cost have increased from £3.19bn to £3.08bn between 2004/05 and 2014/15, an average annual real-terms increase of 1.3%.
Other statistics released included CCTV, which has seen usage double to 88% since 2005/06, automatic vehicle location, which now stands at 96% compared to 35% in 2006/06, and ITSO smart enabled, which now represents 91% of buses, compared to 25% in 2010/11. The average age of buses in England is currently 7.6 years.
Local bus operators employed 104,000 full time staff as of March 2016.
