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Bus Services: Concessions

Asked by Alex MayerLabourDepartment for TransportTabled Answered 8 September 2025UIN 75215

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of trends in current levels of concessionary bus travel usage.

Answered by Simon Lightwood

The Department publishes statistics on concessionary travel in England in the Concessionary Travel Statistics release, which are based on survey data collected from Travel Concession Authorities (TCAs). Concessionary travel relates to when eligible people travel on reduced (or free) fares.

The latest concessionary travel statistics, including figures on concessionary bus passenger journeys in England for the year ending March 2011 to the year ending March 2024 for older and disabled people are provided in the table below:

Table: Older and Disabled Concessionary Bus Journeys, millions

Year ending March

England

England outside London

London

English metropolitan areas

English non-metropolitan areas

2011

1,048

753

296

302

450

2012

1,054

747

307

295

453

2013

1,009

711

298

281

430

2014

1,007

708

300

277

430

2015

989

693

296

268

425

2016

958

670

289

258

412

2017

925

644

281

247

397

2018

881

608

273

232

376

2019

861

592

269

226

366

2020

802

550

252

209

340

2021

270

179

92

76

103

2022

491

322

169

129

193

2023

570

372

198

141

231

2024

604

389

215

144

245

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