Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2018 to Question 183872 on Bus Services: North West, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the decline in bus journeys in (a) the North West and (b) Merseyside.

The department has not made an assessment of the reasons for the fall in bus journeys in the North West and Merseyside.

It is important to consider the fall in bus journeys in the context of a broader decline in overall trips. Data from the 2017 National Travel Survey shows that trips have fallen 9% since 2002 in England.

There are a number of factors that may explain the fall in bus patronage on local bus services specifically.

These include:

• Congestion
• Levels of car ownership
• Increase in online shopping
• Reductions in local authority supported services