Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage passenger levels to (a) return to and (b) exceed pre-pandemic levels on buses.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government recognises the importance of promoting the return of passengers to public transport following the pandemic and is engaging regularly with the bus and coach sector to assess how it can best support the sector’s recovery from the pandemic.
Data for the week commencing 13th June suggests that bus passenger volumes in Great Britain outside London were at around 80% of levels seen in the third week of January 2020 (the pre-Covid reference week).
Passenger volumes for buses in London were also at around 80% of pre-Covid levels. Both of these figures have been relatively stable over the last 6 months, but have increased since the equivalent period in 2021, when passenger volumes were around 60-65% of pre-Covid levels. The full data series going back to March 2020 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.
The Department does not routinely collect data on coach passenger volumes but the Department's National Travel Survey contains information about trends in public transport usage. This includes trends in bus use in London, other local bus use outside London, and non-local bus usage (a proxy for coach usage). The latest data from the survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-travel-survey-statistics.
The Government provided around £2bn to support the bus sector during the pandemic. The Government is committed to delivering improvements to bus services around the country and is meeting its commitments set out in the National Bus Strategy, one of which includes supporting the sector to proactively promote the use of buses.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of trends in coach passenger volumes in England.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government recognises the importance of promoting the return of passengers to public transport following the pandemic and is engaging regularly with the bus and coach sector to assess how it can best support the sector’s recovery from the pandemic.
Data for the week commencing 13th June suggests that bus passenger volumes in Great Britain outside London were at around 80% of levels seen in the third week of January 2020 (the pre-Covid reference week).
Passenger volumes for buses in London were also at around 80% of pre-Covid levels. Both of these figures have been relatively stable over the last 6 months, but have increased since the equivalent period in 2021, when passenger volumes were around 60-65% of pre-Covid levels. The full data series going back to March 2020 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.
The Department does not routinely collect data on coach passenger volumes but the Department's National Travel Survey contains information about trends in public transport usage. This includes trends in bus use in London, other local bus use outside London, and non-local bus usage (a proxy for coach usage). The latest data from the survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-travel-survey-statistics.
The Government provided around £2bn to support the bus sector during the pandemic. The Government is committed to delivering improvements to bus services around the country and is meeting its commitments set out in the National Bus Strategy, one of which includes supporting the sector to proactively promote the use of buses.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of trends in bus passenger volumes in England.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government recognises the importance of promoting the return of passengers to public transport following the pandemic and is engaging regularly with the bus and coach sector to assess how it can best support the sector’s recovery from the pandemic.
Data for the week commencing 13th June suggests that bus passenger volumes in Great Britain outside London were at around 80% of levels seen in the third week of January 2020 (the pre-Covid reference week).
Passenger volumes for buses in London were also at around 80% of pre-Covid levels. Both of these figures have been relatively stable over the last 6 months, but have increased since the equivalent period in 2021, when passenger volumes were around 60-65% of pre-Covid levels. The full data series going back to March 2020 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.
The Department does not routinely collect data on coach passenger volumes but the Department's National Travel Survey contains information about trends in public transport usage. This includes trends in bus use in London, other local bus use outside London, and non-local bus usage (a proxy for coach usage). The latest data from the survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-travel-survey-statistics.
The Government provided around £2bn to support the bus sector during the pandemic. The Government is committed to delivering improvements to bus services around the country and is meeting its commitments set out in the National Bus Strategy, one of which includes supporting the sector to proactively promote the use of buses.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact on service provision of ending the additional £150 million additional covid-19 funding to bus and light rail services after October 2022.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government has provided over £2 billion of support through emergency and recovery grants to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on bus and light rail services. A further £184 million in funding has been provided to continue supporting the sector following the Covid-19 pandemic until October 2022 to give services the maximum amount of time to recover.
The Government has also provided over £2.5 billion in new funding to support improvements to bus services and are on track to meet the commitment of £3 billion invested in buses in this Parliament. This includes over £1 billion in new funding for bus transformation deals to deliver London-style fares, infrastructure, and service improvements. It is expected that the local authorities who have been awarded indicative funding allocations to deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans as announced in April should receive final allocations in October to coincide with the end of recovery funding.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has plans to extend additional covid-19 bus and light rail funding after October 2022.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government has provided over £2 billion of support through emergency and recovery grants to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on bus and light rail services. A further £184 million in funding has been provided to continue supporting the sector following the Covid-19 pandemic until October 2022 to give services the maximum amount of time to recover.
The Government has also provided over £2.5 billion in new funding to support improvements to bus services and are on track to meet the commitment of £3 billion invested in buses in this Parliament. This includes over £1 billion in new funding for bus transformation deals to deliver London-style fares, infrastructure, and service improvements. It is expected that the local authorities who have been awarded indicative funding allocations to deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans as announced in April should receive final allocations in October to coincide with the end of recovery funding.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much of his Department's £360 million investment to transform rail ticketing outside of London and the South East has been spent to date.
Answered by Wendy Morton
In the three months since the beginning of this Spending Review period, the programme focus has been on developing the detailed technical and commercial work to inform business cases and future procurements to transform rail ticketing.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the impact of the national rail strikes on children's exam attendance.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Secretary of State frequently updates Cabinet colleagues about the impact of the strikes.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department last held in-person discussions with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Ministers and officials regularly meet with the RMT on a variety of matters.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he last met a representative of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers in person.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Ministers and officials regularly meet with the RMT on a variety of matters.