Campaign for Better Transport: New online interactive bus mapping tool reveals one in seven people in England lack a decent bus service

Campaign for Better Transport is urging the Government to invest more in local bus services as it reveals one in seven people in England don't have access to a decent bus service.

The charity has launched a new online interactive bus map, which uses a traffic light system to identify which areas lack a decent bus service. This has been used to calculate that the Government needs to invest an extra £300 million a year to give all communities access to at least a minimum level of bus service that could reasonably be considered acceptable.  

Ben Plowden, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: Buses are an essential public service. Having inadequate bus provision can mean missing out on education, employment, essential services and social interaction. Improving access to local buses is one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways of reducing social exclusion, boosting local economies and building thriving communities. Public finances are under significant pressure, but investing an extra £300 million a year in our bus servicesaround 0.15 per cent of the NHS budgetwould have a huge social and economic benefit and would be great value for money for taxpayers.

Campaign for Better Transport, in partnership with Podaris, collected data on household access to bus stops and the frequency of services for every local authority ward in England to produce an interactive, searchable map. The map shows how many bus services operate a week; what percentage of the people living there can get to a bus stop within a five and ten-minute walk; the bus service frequency; what percentage of residents have access to a car; and how deprived the area is. 

Each ward was scored green, yellow, amber or red against two bus service standard benchmarks: a minimum baseline' for a usable bus service, and an ambition benchmark', setting out a best practice level that local authorities should aim to meet within ten years. Green means there were enough bus stops and services to meet the benchmark; yellow means they require additional bus stops; amber means they require additional services; and red means they failed to meet the minimum number of bus stops and services to meet the benchmark.

The map reveals that:

• One in seven (15 per cent) people in England live in places that do not meet the minimum baseline (red, amber and yellow)
• More than two in five (42 per cent) people in England live in places that do not meet the ambition benchmark.

More urban areas with higher population densities tended to meet the minimum baseline criteria, with three quarters of high-density wards and half of medium density wards achieving the minimum baseline.  

Local authorities are currently required to identify existing socially necessary bus services, for instance those which serve hospitals, but not where there are gaps in bus provision. Campaign for Better Transport created the interactive map to help local authorities and bus operators identify and plug those gaps. 

Campaign for Better Transport has calculated it would cost an additional £300 million a year to ensure everywhere in England meets the minimum baseline for bus services, if current funding is not to be redirected from existing supported services. It would cost an additional £1 billion a year to meet the ambition benchmark defined in the study.  

Devon Barrett, Co-Founder of Podaris, said: "Good public transport isn't a luxury - it's how people get to work, to school, to a doctor's appointment. But you can't connect people to where they need to go without the foundations in place first. Podaris is really proud to have built this tool with Campaign for Better Transport, which makes it clear, ward by ward, whether the fundamental building blocks of a bus network even exist. If they don't, everything else is moot."

View the map online at: bettertransport.org.uk/bus-mapping

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. Campaign for Better Transport operates in England and Wales. Campaign for Better Transport's vision is for all communities to have access to high-quality, sustainable transport that meets their needs, improves quality of life, reduces inequality, and supports a vibrant, productive and decarbonised economy. Campaign for Better Transport Charitable Trust is a registered charity (1101929).
2. Whilst the tool includes all local authority wards in England and Wales, the figures quoted here relate to England only as bus services are devolved to the Welsh Government.
3. The frequency of services means the number of one-way journeys stopping at a bus stop. For the ambition benchmark', low density 100 trips / week, roughly matches every village / every hour as a standard; mid density 250 trips / week, roughly based on a half-hourly service level typical for a urban or busy suburban route; high density 500 trips per week, roughly every 12 mins, matching a TfL-style turn-up-and-go service level.
4. Population density is measured by people per hectare: high >40 pph, mid 10-40 pph, low <10 pph (Census 2021, ONS).
5. Bus stop access is measured by the percentage of the population whose nearest bus stop is a five or ten-minute walk away (source: NaPTAN active bus stops).
6. Bus service frequency is measured by the percentage of the population who have access to at least a certain number of bus trips per week (source: BODS Demand Responsive Transport services are not included).
7. The Department of Health's spending in 2024/25 was £204.7 billion. The vast majority of this (94.4 per cent, or £193.2 billion) was on day-to-day items such as staff salaries and medicines. The remainder was largely capital expenditure on long-term fixed assets such as new buildings or equipment. Of the day-to-day spending, most (£187 billion in 2024/25) was allocated to NHS England for spending on health services. Source: King's Fund. 
8. Podaris is a collaborative, cloud-based platform designed for transport infrastructure planning, engineering, and stakeholder engagement. It is used by local authorities, consultancies, and transport operators to rapidly model, analyse, and share transport scenarios within a web browser.