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3. Bus and coach service statistics
3.1 Distance travelled - by type of service( Table 1.1 and Chart A)
Chart E: Local bus service fare indices and passenger transport fare indices
Chart F: Passenger receipts; public transport support and concessionary fare reimbursement (Scotland)
Scottish bus and coach services travelled 506 million vehicle kilometres in 2004-05, 5% less than in the previous year. There was a fall of 2% since 1994-95, compared with a fall of 3% for Great Britain as a whole.
The distance travelled by local bus services in Scotland in 2004-05 was 366 million vehicle kilometres, 1% less than in both the previous year and 1994-95. There was a 1% fall in the distance travelled over the past ten years by local bus services in Great Britain.
The distance travelled by other (non-local) Scottish bus services in 2004-05 was 140 million vehicle kilometres, 16% less than in the previous year.
Over the past ten years, the distance travelled by other (non-local) Scottish bus services fell by 3%, compared to a fall of 7% in other (non-local) bus services in Great Britain as a whole.
3.2 Local bus services - distance travelled per head of population( Table 1.2 and Chart B)
The distance travelled by local bus services per head of population has been consistently higher in Scotland than Great Britain (as can be seen clearly in Chart B). In 2004-05 it was over 72 vehicle kilometres per capita in Scotland compared with 45 in Great Britain, and so was 60% higher in Scotland.
3.3 Local bus services - Commercial and Subsidised services' distance travelled( Table 1.2 and Chart A)
The distance travelled by commercial local bus services in Scotland in 2004-05 rose by 2% on the previous year to 309 million vehicle kilometres, and was 3% lower than in 1994-95.
The distance travelled by subsidised local bus services in Scotland in 2004-05 decreased 16% on the previous year, and was 10% higher than in 1994-95. The corresponding rise in "Great Britain outside London" since 1994-95 was 27%.
The subsidised local bus services' share of the total distance travelled by all local bus services in 2004-05 was about 15% in Scotland, compared with about 21% for "Great Britain outside London".
3.4 Passenger journeys (boardings) - local bus services( Table 2.1 and Charts C & D)
In Scotland, there were 465 million passenger journeys (boardings) on local bus services in 2004-05. This was 8 million (2%) more than the previous year, in comparison the rise for Great Britain as a whole was 1%. However, the Scottish total for 2004-05 was 9% less than in 1994-95, having fallen in every year since then until the "low point" of 413 million passenger journeys in 1998-99, which was followed by increases in each subsequent year. The corresponding figure for the past ten years in Great Britain is an increase of 5%. The fall of 13% for "Great Britain outside London" was slightly more than for Scotland.
The number of passenger journeys (boardings) on local bus services in Scotland in 2004-05 represented nearly 92 journeys per head of population, compared with 79 per head of population for Great Britain, and so was 16% higher in Scotland. However, the difference between Scotland and Great Britain as a whole had been reducing: in 1994-95 the Scottish figure was 28% higher than the figure for Great Britain. This reduction in the difference can be seen clearly in Chart D, which shows the Scottish figure had been falling steadily towards the level for Great Britain as a whole until 1998-99; since then, the Scottish figure has risen slightly and the Scotland : GB ratio appears to have stabilised around 1.16.
Chart G: Vehicle Stock (Scotland)
Chart H: Staff Employed (Scotland)
On the 30 September 2002 a national minimum standard of free off-peak local bus travel for elderly and disabled people in Scotland was introduced. The arrangements were extended on 1 st April 2003 to men aged 60-64 (who then became eligible to receive the same travel benefits as women aged 60+ and men aged 65+). For the purpose of these arrangements, "off-peak" means at the weekend or after 9.30 am on a weekday. The 2004-05 financial year's figures represent the second year of this scheme.
3.5 Passenger Fares( Table 3.1 and Chart E)
In real terms, bus passenger fares on local services in Scotland fell by 1% between 2003-04 and 2004-05, compared with a 2% increase for Great Britain as a whole. The increase in fares in real terms over the past ten years in Scotland was 12%, and a corresponding 16% rise for Great Britain.
3.6 Passenger price indices for different modes of transport - in Great Britain( Table 3.2 and Chart E)
While fares for local bus services in Great Britain have risen by 16% in real terms since 1994-95, rail fares have increased by 8%, and motoring costs in Great Britain have, in real terms, decreased by 6% over the same period. (A corresponding range of price indices for Scotland is not available).
3.7 Passenger receipts( Tables 4.1 and 4.2, and Chart F)
Passenger receipts on local bus services in Scotland were £381 million in 2004-05, an increase of 5% in real terms on the previous year. This is the same in real terms as the corresponding figure for 1994-95. Local bus service passenger receipts have in the last ten years ranged from £345 million to £381 million at 2004-05 prices.
In real terms, local bus service passenger receipts in Scotland in 2004-05 were the same as in 1994-95. In comparison, in Great Britain outside London there was an 10% rise, while in Great Britain as a whole the rise was 16%.
3.8 Public Transport Support - local bus services( Table 5.2 and Chart F)
Public transport support for local bus services in Scotland in 2004-05 was £60 million, in real terms a rise of 14% on the previous year, and a rise of 109% over ten years previously. In comparison, over the same 10 year period, there has been a rise in support of 168% in real terms for Great Britain, with a 31% rise for Great Britain outwith London.
3.9 Concessionary Fare Reimbursement - local bus services( Table 5.3 and Chart F)
Concessionary fare reimbursement on local bus services in Scotland in 2004-05 was £89 million, in real terms a rise of 2% from the previous year, and a rise of 69% from 1994-95. In Great Britain there was a rise of 9% in real terms over the past ten years.
3.10 Operating costs per vehicle kilometre - local bus services( Table 6.1)
Chart I: Estimated distance travelled by local bus services for former regions
Chart J: Estimated distance travelled by local bus services for former regions
The estimated average operating cost (including depreciation) of local bus services in Scotland, was 86 pence per vehicle-kilometre in 2004-05, in real terms 6% more than in the previous year, but 16% lower than ten years earlier. The corresponding estimated average operating cost (including depreciation) for Great Britain was 120 pence per vehicle kilometre, and the rise in real terms over the past ten years was 4%.
3.11 Operating costs per passenger journey - local bus services( Table 6.2)
The estimated average operating cost (including depreciation) per passenger journey for local bus services in Scotland in 2004-05 was 68 pence, in real terms 4% less than the previous year and 8% less than ten years ago. The operating cost per passenger journey for Great Britain was also 68 pence, and had fallen by 1% over the past ten years.
3.12 Number of buses and coaches( Tables 7.1 and 7.2, and Chart G)
With effect from 2003-04, the Department for Transport's survey of Public Service Vehicle operators no longer asks operators for a breakdown of single deckers by their numbers of seats. This means that figures for the numbers of single deckers with 17-35 seats and with 36+ seats are no longer available.
There was a 8% fall in the overall total number of buses and coaches in Scotland in 2004-05 from the previous year, although it was 2% higher than ten years earlier.
In Scotland over the period since 1994-95, there has been a 14% increase in the number of single deckers (including coaches), from 6,600 to 7,500. The number of double deckers fell by 30% from 2,500 in 1994-95 to 1,800 in 2004-05, and by 5% over the past year.
In Great Britain, the 6% increase in the total number of buses and coaches over the past ten years was greater than Scotland's 2% rise. The number of single deckers rose by 14% over the last ten years but is practically unchanged from the previous year. The number of double deckers in Great Britain fell by 16% in ten years but rose by 1% from the previous year.
Information about the numbers of buses and coaches which have low floors, powered lifts or ramps, or kneeling mechanisms has only been collected with effect from the return for the 1997-98 financial year. However, in 2000-01 the question within the DfT bus and coach survey was changed and in 2001-02 the question on low floor vehicles was changed again to record those which had a certificate under PSV Accessibility Regulations 2000, and those which did not have the certificate but were of low floor designs suitable for wheelchair access. In Great Britain in 2004-05, over a quarter (27%) of full size buses met the above criteria. As a result, figures within Table 7.2 for 2000-01 onwards are on a different basis to previous years. It should also be noted that some of the apparent year-to-year changes may be misleading, possibly being due to the effects of sampling variability - see the notes on the source of the figures, in section 6.
3.13 Staff Employed( Table 8.1 and Chart H)
There were 17,900 staff employed by bus and coach operators in Scotland in 2004-05, 600 (3%) less than the previous year, but 2% more than 1994-95. In contrast there was a 13% increase in the number of staff employed in Great Britain over the same ten year period.
In Scotland there was an decrease in the number of "platform staff" (including drivers, conductors and other on-vehicle staff) of 200 (2%) when compared with the previous year. In Great Britain "platform staff" rose by 4,100 (3%) over the same period. In 2004-05, "maintenance and other staff" numbers in Scotland fell by 7% from the previous year, and were 18% lower when compared with 1994-95.
Chart K: Estimated passenger journeys on local bus services
Chart L: Estimated passenger journeys on local bus services for former regions
3.14 Local bus services: Estimated vehicle kilometres and passenger journeys (boardings) for areas within Scotland( Tables 9.1 and 9.2, and Charts I to L)
Estimates for areas within Scotland can be produced from the statistical returns but it should be noted that the statistical returns were not designed to produce figures for parts of Scotland, and therefore some of the estimates may be subject to considerable uncertainty. The reasons for this are explained in section 6.6.
The estimates for different parts of Scotland that are given in this bulletin should therefore be seen as a general guide to the levels and trends, with the occasional "hiccup" in the series being a reminder that the estimates may be affected by the kinds of factors described in section 6.6 and so are not necessarily reliable. This point is particularly relevant in the case of the estimates for the areas with the smallest populations where (for example) apparently large year-to-year fluctuations could be caused by the "luck of the draw" including in the sample several operators in one year and few operators in another year - or could reflect genuine changes in the level of provision and patronage of services in those areas due to ( e.g.) expansion or contraction by one or more operators.
The estimates suggest that, over the past ten years, there have been an increase in the number of vehicle kilometres run by local bus services in one part of Scotland, and falls in all other areas. At the same time, the numbers of passenger journeys (boardings) have fallen in most of the main populated areas, with the scale of the percentage reduction apparently varying between areas. However, patronage in Lothian and Strathclyde appears to have risen since 1998-99, with the figure for Lothian in 2004-05 being 4% more than ten years earlier. It is not known whether the fall in the overall figure for Lothian for 2002-03 is due to sampling variability or follows the end of the Edinburgh "bus war", which took place between August 2001 and July 2002.
3.15 Local bus services: Longer term trends( Table 10.1 and Chart M)
Some key statistics are available for local bus services for years from 1975. However, due to changes in methods of collecting the data, figures for years prior to 1985-86, which was the last full year prior to deregulation, may be less reliable than those for later years.
The distance travelled (vehicle kilometres) by local bus services in Scotland has increased by 8% since 1975, mainly due to an increase between 1985 and 1994. (Prior to 1985, there had been falls in most years since 1975). However, the number of passenger journeys (boardings) has decreased by 48% since 1975, with falls in most of the years since then. There have been increases in only eight of the 29 years since 1975: the rise in 2004-05 was only the sixth since 1987-88, and the first time since the current records began in 1975 that there had been rises in six consecutive years. Chart M shows how the increase from the "low point" of 413 million passenger journeys in 1998-99 compares with the falls in the previous 20-or-so years.
For Great Britain as a whole, the distance travelled (vehicle kilometres) rose by 7% and the number of passenger journeys fell by 39% between 1975 and 2004-05.
Chart M: Local bus services: passenger journeys and distance travelled by services (vehicle kilometres) - Scotland
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