Official Statistics

Concessionary travel statistics: England, 2012 and 2013

Information on concessionary travel on buses in England during 2011 to 2012 and 2012 and 2013.

Applies to England

Documents

Concessionary travel statistics: 2012 and 2013 report

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Concessionary travel statistics: 2012 and 2013 data tables

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Concessionary travel statistics: 2012 and 2013 CSV tables

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Details

Concessionary travel on buses in England during 2011 to 2012 and 2012 to 2013. The main focus of the release is free bus travel for older and disabled people, but it also includes information relating to concessions on other transport modes and young people’s concessions. Most of the data are derived from the Department for Transport’s survey of travel concession authorities.

Planned update

This release was updated in December 2012 to include the latest data on local authority expenditure on concessionary travel, from the Department for Communities and Local Government. Two new statistics tables have been added, bus0811 and bus0812.

In the financial year ending 2012:

  • there were around 9.8 million older and disabled concessionary bus passes in England, with an average of 109 bus journeys per pass per year
  • pass numbers in England are forecast to increase by 3% in 2012 to 2013, according to forecasts by travel concession authorities (TCAs)
  • TCAs paid £898 million to reimburse bus operators for concessionary journeys by older and disabled people, a fall of 2% in real terms since 2010 to 2011
  • the average reimbursement per concessionary journey was 84 pence, a fall of 3 pence per journey in real terms, compared to 2010 to 2011

In the financial year ending 2013:

  • 87 of the 89 TCAs outside London offered some discretionary travel concessions, most commonly concessions for companions to disabled people and extensions to the statutory travel time period
  • in all but 5 TCAs in England, some travel concession is available for young people, offered by either the TCA or on a commercial basis by bus operators

Technical information

Information on bus statistics, including the pre-release access list and related technical documentation is available under the technical information section.

  • National travel survey, includes data on concessionary pass holders in Great Britain, as well as general information on travel patterns amongst older people
  • Light rail and tram statistics, includes data on concessionary journeys on light rail and tram systems and concessionary revenue for bus and light rail operators
  • Bus statistics, includes a range of data on all bus travel, including overall passenger journey numbers and bus operator finance

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Updates to this page

Published 15 November 2012
Last updated 7 January 2013 + show all updates
  1. First published.

  2. This release was updated in December 2012 to include the latest data on local authority expenditure on concessionary travel, from the Department for Communities and Local Government. Two new statistics tables have been added – bus0811 and bus0812.

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