The National Audit Office has found that the decline in Devon bus passenger journey numbers has been among the largest in the country, with journeys down 28% over a four-year period from 2019-20 to 2023-24.
In a report assessing the performance of local bus services since the pandemic, it found that government investment is not improving services for passengers or attracting more people to use buses in most areas of England outside London.
While some largely-rural areas have seen significant declines in bus passenger journey numbers, with Devon seventh from bottom of the 85 areas it assessed, fourteen areas saw increased journey numbers. These included Cornwall, where bus passenger journey numbers rose by more than 40%.
Source: National Audit Office analysis of Department for Transport data. © National Audit Office.
Data only available at Integrated Transport Authority (ITA) area level for some combined authorities.
Six areas for which complete data not available excluded.
The National Audit Office said that a shift in Department for Transport focus towards supporting the short-term survival of the sector in response to the pandemic meant that long-standing issues with the sector’s performance remain.
It found that bus journeys fell by 9% across the country, outside London, in the four-year period it assessed and that the £2 fare cap introduced in 2023, while contributing to an estimate 5% increase in usage, did not address other barriers such as poor bus service frequency or reliability.
It said that new “enhanced partnerships” between bus operators and local transport authorities have improved sector governance and co-ordination but have also increased complexity and costs, with public funding now accounting for half of operators’ revenue.
It also found that the bus service improvement plans introduced in tandem with the new partnerships had helped matters, but funding and implementation delays meant most capital improvements were yet to be delivered.
The report concluded that the sector’s commercial viability has weakened as revenues have fallen and costs have increased.
It added that the sector’s prospects in a changing landscape in which local transport authorities have increased influence over bus services, notwithstanding the service franchising challenges it identified, depend on government policy and funding interventions.
It said the Department for Transport would need to be clear about its strategic priorities, how it will help increase sector capacity to deliver on those priorities, and how it will intervene where performance needs to improve for passengers.
