Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the data they collect on bus use.

The Department for Transport’s main source of data on bus passenger journeys is the annual Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operator survey. This is a sample survey of roughly 600 operators of local bus services. The data provided from the PSV survey covers around 90 per cent of the published total passenger journey figure. Comparison with other data sources such as the National Travel Survey suggests the estimates produced from the annual PSV survey provide a robust measure of bus passenger journeys.

To provide up to date figures the Department also runs a Quarterly Panel Survey. This is a quarterly survey of the 18 largest non-metropolitan bus operators, Passenger Transport Executives (for the metropolitan areas) and Transport for London which provides quarterly estimates of passenger journeys.

As part of the Bus Services Act (2017), the Department for Transport is developing regulations to require bus operators and local transport authorities to provide data, in open formats, about local bus services including routes & timetable data, fares & ticket data and real time information. We are working closely with industry to develop the regulations and it is intended the requirements will be phased in over the next few years.