Official Statistics

Domestic Transport Usage by Mode

Updated 13 May 2026

These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. More information about these statistics can be found in the methodology note.

Usage of transport by mode from May 2025

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.

Transport for London (TfL ) tube and bus data between the dates Saturday 2 and Friday 8 May are not yet available from Transport for London. The series will be updated in the next release once the data are received.

National Rail data from August 2024 remains provisional until updated adjustment factors for the Elizabeth line are available.

Figure 1: Transport usage as a proportion of pre-COVID-19 levels, Great Britain, May 2025 to May 2026

Description of figure 1: This figure presents a series of 5 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. The demand on the above transport modes have generally stabilised to new levels, reflecting usage unaffected by COVID-19. Over the past year, public transport mode usage (National Rail, buses and TfL) has generally remained below pre-COVID-19 levels, whereas motor vehicles usage has settled close 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). Weekend usage across all modes provided in this series is available in the tables that accompany this release.

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)	6 Apr to 3 May 2026	105% (Sunday 3 May 2026)	Passenger journeys in the week ending Sunday 3 May 2026 (Bank Holiday weekend) were 105% of those observed in the equivalent week in 2019. In the current publishing period weekly average usage figures have been between 92% to 107%, compared to 84% to 108% in the last publishing period. These figures exclude Elizabeth Line services usage.
Bus (GB excluding London)	14 Apr to 11 May 2026	84% (Monday 11 May 2026)	Bus boardings outside of London on Monday 11 May 2026 were 84% of the volume observed on the equivalent day in the third week of January 2020. This is 2 percentage points lower compared to the equivalent day in the previous year (86% on Monday 12 May 2025). In the current publishing period weekday bus usage has been between 78% to 90% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 68% to 92% in the last publishing period.
London Bus	4 Apr to 8 May 2026	83% (Friday 1 May 2026)	TfL bus boardings on Friday 1 May 2026 were 83% of the equivalent day in 2019. In the current publishing period weekday TfL bus usage has been between 81% to 97% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 72% to 88% in the last publishing period.
London Tube	4 Apr to 8 May 2026	78% (Friday 1 May 2026)	Tube entries and exits on Friday 1 May 2026 were 78% of the equivalent day in 2019. In the current publishing period, there were strikes on TfL tube which affected usage. Weekday tube usage in the current publishing period has been between 47% to 85% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 76% to 87% in the last publishing period.
Motor Traffic (GB)	14 Apr to 11 May 2026	105% (Monday 11 May 2026)	On Monday 11 May 2026 traffic volumes were 105% of the levels during the first week of February 2020. This is 1 percentage point lower compared to the equivalent day in the previous year (106% on Monday 12 May 2025). Weekday usage in this publishing period has been between 100% to 107% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to 97% to 104% in the last publishing period.

1. National Rail and TfL data are lagged compared to other modes due to the availability of data at time of publishing. For National Rail, the current period covers Monday 6 April 2026 to Sunday 3 May 2026, while the previous publishing period covers Monday 2 March 2026 to Sunday 5 April 2026. For TfL data, the current period covers Saturday 4 April 2026 to Friday 8 May 2026, while the previous publishing period covers Saturday 7 March 2026 to Friday 3 April 2026. ↩