\u00a0 \u00a0 The statistics go up to the end of March 2023 so they do not show the full impact of the goverment-funded \u00a32 fare cap introduced across England (outside of London) in January 2023, a policy intended to attract more people to use bus services. However, they reveal stark differences in the fortunes of local bus services in different parts of the country.<\/p>\n In the year to March 2023, the biggest increases in bus use were in local authority areas in the South East and East of England. In contrast, the three areas that saw bus use fall over that period are all in the North.<\/p>\n As we build back from the pandemic, better buses will be one of our major acts of levelling-up<\/p>\n This contradicts the ambitions of the government\u2019s National Bus Strategy for England, published in March 2021, which then prime minister Boris Johnson declared: \u201cAs we build back from the pandemic, better buses will be one of our major acts of levelling-up.\u201d<\/p>\n Across England as a whole, passenger journeys on local bus services increased by 19.3% over the year to March 31, 2023, but numbers were still 21.5% below pre-pandemic levels. The strongest growth was in the East of England (+25.5%) and the South East (+23.5%) whereas the weakest growth was in the North East (+13.7%) and Yorkshire and Humber (+15.1%).<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 Thurrock (+47.1%) Lowest growth:<\/strong><\/p>\n Blackburn with Darwen (-7.1%) \u00a0 DON\u2019T MISS OUT \u2013 GET YOUR COPY! \u2013\u00a0click here to subscribe!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The post North-south divide in bus network recovery<\/a> first appeared on Passenger Transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u200b\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DfT figures show bus use recovering fastest in the South East and East of England \u2013 contrasting with weaker growth, and even decline, in the North \u00a0The National Bus Strategy for England stated: \u201cAs we build back from the pandemic, better buses will be one of our major acts of levelling-up.\u201d \u00a0 Analysis of the latest bus statistics for England…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The National Bus Strategy for England stated: \u201cAs we build back from the pandemic, better buses will be one of our major acts of levelling-up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\nAnalysis of the latest bus statistics for England from the Department for Transport shows a north-south divide is emerging in the post-pandemic recovery of local bus networks.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
Highest growth:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nCambridgeshire (+39.5%)
\nSurrey (+39.4%)
\nCentral Bedfordshire (+36.4%)
\nHerefordshire (+36.4%)<\/p>\n
\nEast Riding of Yorkshire (-6.7%)
\nDurham (-3.4%)
\nRutland (0.0%)
\nNorth East Lincolnshire (+3.8%)<\/p>\n
This article appears in the latest issue of\u00a0Passenger Transport<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n