Bus journeys in Luton fail to recover to pre-pandemic levels

Across England, 3.6 billion journeys were taken last year, just a 7 per cent rise on the year before but well below the 4.1 billion taken before the pandemic.

The Campaign for Better Transport said service provision and frequency must be improved to see more people using the bus.

New figures from the Department for Transport show passengers in Luton took 9.9 million bus journeys in the year to March.

This was up from 8.4 million the year before, but was below pre-pandemic levels of 10 million.

Silviya Barrett from Campaign for Better Transport said: "It’s encouraging that once again we’re seeing more people take the bus, helped by the £2 bus fare cap making bus travel more affordable in the past year. But to truly see more people using buses more frequently, we need to see a boost to service provision and frequency too.

"We urge the Government to introduce a bus service guarantee in the forthcoming Better Buses Bill, to define a minimum level of bus services in every community and ensure that local authorities have the necessary long-term funding to deliver them."

The figures also showed the number of bus journeys in Luton has fallen by 8 per cent from five years ago, although the last decade has seen the number rise by 16 per cent.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in October that the cap on single bus fares in England will rise from £2 to £3 from January 1.