Erick Burgueño Salas
Research expert covering climate change and the water industry
Get in touch with us nowOn the financial side, public sector spending on transport amounted to roughly 45.1 billion British pounds in 2020/21. More than half of which was used for railways specifically. By comparison, the overall share of transport public expenditure on local public transit was 12 percent that same year, with figures increasing since the beginning of the pandemic. In 2021, the average weekly household spent on transport services was 12.1 British pounds for 30- to 49-year-olds. People from this age range were also the group that spent the most on these services.
Regarding bus journeys, the most significant number was made in England at 1.6 billion, with London accounting for half in 2020/21. In the past years, these figures have been steadily declining. However, operating costs for local bus services have been increasing in recent years, climbing from 2.7 billion British pounds in the 2004/05 financial year to roughly four billion in 2019/20.
Transport for London
From the famous red double-deckers to the Tube, public transportation plays a vital role in the British capital. Transport for London (TfL) is the local government body in charge of almost all the intricated public transit network. Created in 2000 as a predecessor of the organization London Regional Transport, TfL is responsible for the underground system, the Dockland’s Light Railway, buses, taxis, principal road routes, cycling provision, and river services. It also operates the London Overground and the newly inaugurated Elizabeth Line.In the fiscal year 2021/22, TfL reported almost 2.5 billion passenger journeys, a considerable increase from the previous year but still not at the levels reported before the pandemic, when the number of trips scratched the four billion margin. London buses were TfL’s most used public transit mode in 2021/22, taking care of approximately 60 percent of the total journeys. The Tube was the second most used mode of the network, with 748 million trips. During the same fiscal year, TfL’s passenger income amounted to 3.2 billion British pounds, London Underground’s fares being the greatest contributor with 1.5 billion British pounds.
