Bus miles fall by 22 million

The distance covered by bus services in the capital fell by 22 million miles (35 million kilometres) between 2017 and 2023, new figures reveal.

Statistics shared by the DfT (Department for Transport) showed that the distance travelled fell from a peak of 304 million miles (489 million kilometres) in 2017 to 282 million miles (453 million kilometres) in 2023.

Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, said the decline showed that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, ‘doesn’t care about outer London’.

The Mayor’s office blamed the cuts on ‘punitive funding conditions from central government’; the DfT, however, said those claims were ‘wrong’, adding it had provided £6.6 billion of funding to TfL (Transport for London) since 2020.