Department For Transport
Details
Revisions
A new table on vehicle distance travelled has been added to the Annual bus statistics, England: year ending March 2022 statistical release and figures for vehicle distance travelled and the percentage of buses by emission standard have been revised.
Due to growing interest, the department has updated these statistics to incorporate a time series of vehicle distance travelled at local transport authority level. This data has been added as new data tables in BUS02_mi and BUS02_km, and incorporates revisions to some figures previously published.
Following the discovery of an error due to the way the data was processed the figures for percentage of buses by emission standards have been revised for the latest year.
We have therefore updated all the tables in the BUS02_mi and BUS02_km workbooks, the BUS06e table and the relevant charts and text in the statistical release.
These revisions are minor at a national level, not changing the overall trend, however some larger differences might be seen at a more local level due to how the data is collected.
Changes to the annual bus statistics
Accessibility changes
To improve accessibility the report has been converted from a pdf format into a html format and the accompanying data tables have been improved to meet accessibility guidelines.
Data table structure changes
Additional changes have been made to the structure of the accompanying data tables. Previously, data tables were available for download individually, now, data tables are available for download as collections and included as tabs within one file. A tables index which includes a mapping between the old data table structure and the new one has been provided to help users navigate these changes.
Discontinued data tables
Two tables have been excluded from publication this year (previously BUS0109b and BUS0110b) due to data quality concerns. This data is voluntarily collected from local authorities and the metrics covered are collected on a more complete basis through the DfT survey of bus operators (available in tables BUS01e and BUS01f, respectively). Subject to feedback from users the voluntary data collected from local authorities on passenger journeys will be discontinued next year and the data previously published in BUS0109b and BUS0110b will be excluded from future publications.
We would welcome any feedback from users of the statistics on these changes. Please contact bus statistics with any views.
The summary relates only to England to match the coverage of Department for Transport bus policy, but the tables also cover Scotland and Wales.
In the year ending March 2022, the number of bus passenger journeys:
- increased by 80% in England
- increased by 72% in London
- increased by 88% in England outside of London
In the year ending March 2022, bus service mileage:
- increased by 10% in England
- increased by 2% in London
- increased by 13% in England outside of London
This publication covers the year to 31 March 2022, which includes periods during which restrictions and later guidelines were in place due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The collection of passenger data is not granular enough to distinguish numbers of passenger journeys at different points during this period. An indication of changes in bus passenger volume during this period can be found in the separate weekly release covering transport use during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
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