Scottish bus journeys still below 2019 figures

Bus journeys in Scotland are rising following the pandemic, but they are still down compared to 2019.

These results were published in the Scottish Transport Statistics released by Transport Scotland today (14 March 2023).

The statistics show that there were 234 million bus journeys in 2021, accounting for 79% of all public transport journeys. Bus journeys rose by 87% between 2020 and 2021 but are down 35% compared to the number of journeys in 2019.

The statistics show a growth over the country’s transport network since the Covid-19 outbreak, with the number of journeys being made by public transport in Scotland rose markedly from 151 million in 2020 to 295 million in 2021. This compares to 497 million journeys recorded in 2019, prior to the pandemic.

A similar downturn in patronage seen on Scotland’s buses is apparent in ScotRail’s figures. There were 46.7 million passenger journeys on ScotRail services in 2021/22, an increase of 225% compared with 2020/21 but 52% lower than the 96 million passenger journeys in 2019/20.

Motor traffic also rose in 2021. The distance driven by motor vehicles on roads increased by 15% over the past year to hit 43.4 billion vehicle kilometres in 2021 and the number of motor vehicles registered in Scotland (3.1 million) is at an all-time high.

• The full results can be viewed here.