A bulletin of public transport statistics: Great Britain: 2002 edition

Introduction

This bulletin continues the annual series of Transport Statistics Bulletins with long time series tables of data for land-based public transport in GB. This edition shows series for:

• Local buses
• Non-local buses and coaches
• Light rail, trams and metro systems
• National Rail
• Taxis

The tables continue the series using data from the 2001/02 survey of Public Service Vehicle operators, bus and rail data from Transport for London, data from the Strategic Rail Authority and from other rail and tram operators. It also summarises data from users of public transport, through the National Travel Survey 1999-2001 and the DfT quarterly Bus Passenger Satisfaction Survey. The quarterly Bus Reliability Survey of scheduled mileage run is also summarised here.

The bulletin uses tables and some charts to illustrate the main trends and compare those of various modes. The time series continues many of those established previously in Bus and Coach Statistics Great Britain, Busdata and Focus on Public Transport GB, which were former annual bulletins of bus, coach, rail and taxi statistics. Summary data also appear here from the Traffic Commissioners' Annual Report 2001/02 and the SRA's quarterly National Rail Trends.

National Statistics

Chapters 4 and 5 do not contain National Statistics. Bus and coach data in other chapters and data in Annex B tables which refer to buses are National Statistics.

Other information

It is not possible to publish all of the information that has been collected, to protect commercial confidentiality of transport operators and also because of constraints on the size and production cost of the bulletin. Some unpublished material is available on request, subject to restrictions on commercial data. Details are available from those listed below:

An overview

In July 2000, the 10-Year Transport Plan set targets for increasing public transport use nationally over the next decade, with 2000/01 as the baseline. These are complemented by the Department's new Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets, set following the 2002 Spending Review, and targets agreed separately with bus operators.

Patronage targets

• Bus and light rail - at least a 12 per cent increase in passenger journeys in England over the next decade (this combines the 10-Year Plan targets of increasing bus patronage by 10 per cent and doubling light rail patronage).
• National rail - a 50 per cent increase in passenger kilometres travelled in Great Britain over the next decade.

Other targets

• Improve accessibility, punctuality and reliability of local public transport.
• Improve rail punctuality and reliability.

Targets agreed with the bus industry

• A more modern bus fleet through a target of reducing the average age to 8 years (Confederation of Passenger Transport - CPT - members only)
• More accessible buses, the target is for half the full size bus fleet to be wheelchair accessible by 2010.
• Better information on bus routes and timings, to be monitored using the Department's bus passenger satisfaction survey.

Monitoring

The targets are being monitored using a variety of data sources:

• Bus and light rail patronage; the Department's annual survey of bus and coach and light rail operators.
• Bus patronage in England increased by one per cent, in the year to 31 March 2002 to 3,794 million passenger journeys. London's bus patronage increased by nearly 6 per cent in the year, and now accounts for 38 per cent of the England total (See Annex B, Tables 2, 10 and 13). Light rail patronage increased by 6 per cent in 2001/02 from 119.6 million passenger journeys up to 127.3 million (Annex B, Table 5).
• Bus reliability; the Department's quarterly survey of the largest local bus operators and data from Transport for London (TfL).
• The latest survey covering April-June 2002 shows that operators ran 98.8 per cent of their scheduled mileage, compared with a target of 99.5 per cent (Chapter 1, Table 1.1).
• Age of fleet; at present, using quarterly data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). This will be replaced by annual information from CPT.
• The latest data at 30 June 2002 show the average age at 8.4 years, the lowest since 1990. Further detail on the fleet is in Chapter 2.
• Accessible buses; measured as part of the Department's annual bus and coach operator survey.
• In the year ending 31 March 2002, 29 per cent of the full size local bus fleet was wheelchair accessible (Table 27).
• Passenger satisfaction with information provided; quarterly information from surveys of bus passengers sponsored by the Department and TfL.
• The latest survey results for April-June 2002, show that passenger satisfaction with information at bus stops had an average rating of 62 out of 100, compared with 60 out of 100 in April-June 2001 (Chapter 3, table 3.8).
• Rail patronage; reported quarterly in the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA)'s National Rail Trends.
• In the year ending 31 March 2002, there were 39.1 billion passenger kilometres on the national rail system, an increase of 2 per cent on 2000/01 (Chapter 1).
• Rail punctuality and reliability; published quarterly by SRA in National Rail Trends in terms of the public performance measure (PPM), which measures the percentage of trains arriving on time.
• In the year ending 31 March 2002, 78 per cent of trains arrived on time (Chapter 1, Table 1.2).

Chapters 1 to 5 in the following sections look at the trends in more detail. A calendar of events highlighting changes in the bus and rail industry and other significant transport developments is at Annex A. Tables with long time series of public transport data appear in Annex B.

Publication details

Published on 28 November 2002 by Transport Statistics

E-mail bus.statistics@dft.gov.uk for public transport data requests.