Passengers down slightly

Continuing the nationwide trend of decreasing passenger journeys on buses, figures for October to December 2012 from the DfT have shown a 1.1% drop in bus passenger journeys in England compared to the same period in 2011. There was also a 3.9% decline in non-metropolitan areas, a 0.2% decrease in London and an increase of 0.3% in metropolitan areas. In Scotland, bus passenger journeys went down 3.7% over the same period and fell 4.5% in Wales.

Comparing December 2012 with December 2011, there was an increase in bus fares of 5.7% in England (5.4% in London, 5% in metropolitan areas and 6.8% in non-metropolitan regions). Over the same period, there was an increase of 5.7% in fares in Scotland and a 7.1% rise in Wales.