Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact on the bus industry of increased traffic congestion, in particular in respect of (1) bus speeds, (2) the deployment of additional vehicles to maintain service intervals, and (3) the attractiveness of the bus as a means of travel; and whether they have discussed this subject with the bus industry and local highway authorities.

Managing traffic congestion on the local road network, over which most buses operate, is the responsibility of local highway authorities.

The Government recognises that traffic congestion impacts on the punctuality and reliability of bus services and continues to work collaboratively with the bus industry, local authorities and other stakeholders to promote effective strategies to tackle this issue, such as operator/authority partnership working and the introduction of bus priority measures.

The average traffic speed on locally managed ‘A’ roads in England is estimated to have decreased by 3.3% since 2014, when the Department started measuring speeds over the full 24 hours of the day.

Bus punctuality data is collected and managed by local authorities, and published by the Department for Transport in online statistical tables.

The Department publishes two measures of bus punctuality for frequent and non-frequent bus services. A frequent service is one that has six or more buses per hour.

For frequent services, statistics by local authority are available in table BUS0903. This measure represents the excess waiting time arising from irregular gaps between services.

The proportion of non-frequent bus services in England running on-time is published in table BUS0902. Both tables are attached to this response.

The latest statistics show that in 2014/15, 83% of non-frequent services ran on-time compared with 80% in 2009/10. ‘On-time’ is defined as one between 1 minute early and 5 minutes 59 seconds late.

Ministers and officials have discussed the issue of congestion with Greener Journeys and representatives of the bus industry and local authorities, including at an event in the House of Commons on 14 September.