The collapse in bus passenger journeys due to COVID-19 was the biggest in Wales – with journeys down by 87.1% – in the three months from April-June 2020 (Q2).
Overall, Great Britain figures were down by 82.8% in Q2 2020, compared with the same time last year.
Quarterly figures for Northern Ireland, where buses are in state ownership under Translink, are not published.
As a result, the year to June 2020 showed a 24.7% decline in bus use in England (to 3.25bn passenger journeys), compared with 12 months previously, but this figure has been heavily distorted by the effects of lockdown.
In the year to June 2020, local bus fares in England increased by 1.9%, faster than the all items Consumer Prices Index rate of inflation (1.1%).
The number of local bus passenger journeys in England outside London in the year ending June 2020 decreased by almost 524 million
or 24.7% compared with the previous year, to 1.59 billion.
Bus use decreased in London by 541 million passenger journeys or 24.7% to 1.65 billion. The year ending June 2020 included around three months during which movement restrictions had been applied due to coronavirus.
The number of bus passenger journeys (with each boarding of a bus counted as one journey) is the key measure of bus demand.
and London, year ending March 2005 to year ending June 2020
In April to June 2020, bus use decreased sharply in London by 80.2% when compared with the same quarter in 2019, with a period of declining bus use in London since early 2014.
Bus use in England outside London decreased by 84.8% compared with the same quarter in 2019.
Bus use decreased at the fastest rate in English non-metropolitan areas. These decreases followed the announcement of movement restrictions due to COVID-19 in March 2020.
Figures for England are disaggregated into London, metropolitan areas (the six former metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and
West Yorkshire) and non-metropolitan areas (covering shire counties and unitary authorities).
More details and links to the full statistics are here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-bus-statistics-april-to-june-2020
