The UK Government has released findings of the 2024 National Travel Survey (NTS).
The annual survey analyses patterns and trends in travel behaviour, with data provided by residents of England travelling within Great Britain via interviews and a seven-day travel diary.
Average trips across 2024 remained similar to 2023, with 922 trips per person, totalling around 6,082 miles per person and an average of 362 hours of travel time per person.
With a final response rate of 32%, the NTS 2024 has shown that trip rates for buses outside London, as well as surface rail, have increased compared to data from 2023, whilst trips made on London buses, as well as the London Underground, have decreased.
Trip rates for London services have dipped below pre-pandemic levels, with the exception of surface rail, which has remained almost in-line with levels from 2019.
Roughly 42% of public transport trips utilised a single mode of transport, with the remaining 58% using more than one and around 25% of all multi-modal public transport trips within England involving more than one mode of public transport. This saw a rise to 32% in London.
The Survey found that whilst personal travel remained similar when compared to numbers in 2023, buses and other public transport has seen increases outside London, as well as surface rail, with domestic public transport use growing as a whole throughout 2024 (an increase from 25 to 28 average bus trips per person outside the capital).
Graham Vidler, Chief Executive of the CPT, said:Bus operators welcome evidence today of a significant increase in bus travel in England during 2024. The number of bus journeys per person annually rose from 25 to 28 outside London, underlining the bus’s position as Britain’s favourite form of public transport. The national bus fare cap, together with investment by bus companies in new routes, services and vehicles, has boosted the popularity of bus travel.
It was notable that the only part of the country to see a decrease in bus travel was London, where traffic congestion has slowed down buses, deterring passengers.
Buses across Britain carry 11 million people every day to work, to education and to access local services. On average, people outside London travelled 139 miles by bus over the course of the year – equivalent to a journey from Exeter to Oxford, or from Carlisle to Hull.
Between the early 1970s and early 2000s, the average distance people travelled per year has steadily increased, despite the number of trips, as well as travel time, staying roughly the same.
From this point, miles travelled on average saw a steady declined, with the average number of trips per person, as well as hours spent travelling, stayed the same. This trend was brought to a halt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which saw a steep drop in average miles, trips and hours when compared to 2019 due to restrictions.
