Domestic Transport Usage by Mode
Updated 15 October 2025
These statistics are . They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the . More information about these statistics can be found in the methodology note.
Usage of transport by mode from October 2024
Usage is shown as a percentage of pre-COVID-19 baseline; baselines used vary between modes (see the methodology note for further information). For rail, usage is shown as a 7-day rolling average ending on the indicated date. For all other modes, daily usage for weekdays (excluding bank holidays) is shown.
National Rail data remains to be provisional until updated adjustment factors for the Elizabeth line are available.
Figure 1: Transport usage progressively recovers to pre-COVID-19 level, across all modes
Transport usage as a proportion of pre-COVID-19 levels, Great Britain, October 2024 to October 2025
Description of figure 1: This figure presents a series of 4 line charts which show transport usage as a proportion of pre-COVID-19 levels, for motor vehicles, buses (excluding London), National Rail (excluding the Elizabeth line) and Transport for London (tube and buses) over the last 12 months. Over the past year, public transport mode usage (National Rail, buses and TfL) has remained below pre-COVID-19 levels, whereas motor vehicles usage has remained closer to pre-COVID-19 levels.
For all modes, usage fluctuates day-to-day, and bus usage outside of London is heavily impacted by school holidays throughout the year. Sharp changes in modal usage are as a result of weather events, industrial action or other events. More detail about this can be found in the footnotes of the published data table.
Table 1 below compares the range of usage during the current and previous publishing periods[footnote 1] for each mode as a percentage of the pre-COVID-19 baseline. For all modes, except rail, transport usage excludes weekends and bank holidays, with rail presenting a 7-day rolling average of usage for all days.
The exclusion of weekends and bank holidays for all modes, except rail, is to prevent direct comparisons between these days and weekdays. This is because usage over weekends and bank holidays is less representative of typical weekday usage patterns (see the methodology note for further information).
The publishing periods vary between some modes due to data lags, which are specified in Table 1.
Table 1: Latest transport usage, by mode
Mode | Publishing period | Latest usage at date | Commentary |
---|---|---|---|
Rail (GB excluding Elizabeth Line) | 1 Sep to 5 Oct 2025 | 89% (Sunday 5 October 2025) | Passenger journeys in the week ending Sunday 5 October 2025 were 89% of those observed in the equivalent week in 2019. In the current publishing period, weekly average usage figures have been between 84% to 96%, compared to 89% to 100% in the last publishing period. These figures exclude Elizabeth Line services usage. |
Bus (GB excluding London) | 9 Sep to 13 Oct 2025 | 89% (Monday 13 October 2025) | Bus boardings outside of London on Monday 13 October 2025 were 89% of the volume observed on the equivalent day in the third week of January 2020. This is 3 percentage points lower compared to the equivalent day in the previous year (92% on Monday 14 October 2024). In the current publishing period weekday, bus usage has been between 83% to 97% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 70% to 88% in the last publishing period. |
London Bus | 6 Sep to 10 Oct 2025 | 85% (Friday 10 October 2025) | TfL bus boardings on Friday 10 October 2025 were 85%. In the current publishing period weekday, TfL bus usage has been between 80% to 96% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 78% to 89% in the last publishing period. |
London Tube | 6 Sep to 10 Oct 2025 | 76% (Friday 10 October 2025) | Tube entries and exits on Friday 10 October 2025 were 76% of the equivalent day in 2019. In the current publishing period weekday, tube usage has been between 14% to 86% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 76% to 90% in the last publishing period. Tube usage in the current publishing period was affected by strikes between Sunday 7 to Friday 12 September 2025. Usage then returned to levels that were unaffected by action. |
Motor Traffic (GB) | 9 Sep to 13 Oct 2025 | 103% (Monday 13 October 2025) | On Monday 13 October 2025 traffic volumes were 103% of the levels during the first week of February 2020. This is 2 percentage points higher compared to the equivalent day in the previous year (101% on Monday 14 October 2024). Weekday usage in this publishing period has been between 99% to 104% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to 100% to 106% in the last publishing period. |
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Rail and TfL data are lagged compared to other modes due to the availability of data at time of publishing. For rail, the current period therefore covers Monday 1 September 2025 to Sunday 5 October 2025, while the previous publishing period covers Monday 4 August 2025 to Sunday 31 August 2025. For TfL data, the current period covers Saturday 6 September 2025 to Friday 10 October 2025, while the previous publishing period covers Saturday 9 August 2025 to Friday 5 September 2025. ↩