Domestic Transport Usage by Mode
Updated 12 August 2026
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/daily-domestic-transport-use-by-mode/domestic-transport-usage-by-mode
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 August 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.
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, August 2025 to August 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
In the current publishing period, the summer school holidays started which impacted usage in the final week of July for some modes, such as National Rail.
| Mode | Publishing period | Latest usage at date | Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rail (GB excluding Elizabeth Line) | 6 Jul to 2 Aug 2026 | 98% (Sunday 2 August 2026) | Passenger journeys in the week ending Sunday 2 August 2026 were 98% of those observed in the equivalent week in 2019. In the current publishing period weekly average usage figures have been between 90% to 110%, compared to 89% to 97% in the last publishing period. These figures exclude Elizabeth Line services usage. |
| Bus (GB excluding London) | 14 Jul to 10 Aug 2026 | 74% (Monday 10 August 2026) | Bus boardings outside of London on Monday 10 August 2026 were 74% of the volume observed on the equivalent day in the third week of January 2020. This is 4 percentage points higher compared to the equivalent day in the previous year (70% on Monday 11 August 2025). In the current publishing period weekday bus usage has been between 67% to 78% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 68% to 84% in the last publishing period. |
| London Bus | 11 Jul to 7 Aug 2026 | 85% (Friday 7 August 2026) | TfL bus boardings on Friday 7 August 2026 were 85% of the equivalent day in 2019. In the current publishing period weekday TfL bus usage has been between 79% to 87% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 70% to 85% in the last publishing period. |
| London Tube | 11 Jul to 7 Aug 2026 | 78% (Friday 7 August 2026) | Tube entries and exits on Friday 7 August 2026 were 78% of the equivalent day in 2019. Weekday tube usage in the current publishing period has been between 75% to 92% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to between 67% to 87% in the last publishing period. |
| Motor Traffic (GB) | 14 Jul to 10 Aug 2026 | 105% (Monday 10 August 2026) | On Monday 10 August 2026 traffic volumes were 105% of the levels during the first week of February 2020. This is 1 percentage point higher compared to the equivalent day in the previous year (104% on Monday 11 August 2025). Weekday usage in this publishing period has been between 101% to 107% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to 102% to 109% in the last publishing period. |
-
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 July 2026 to Sunday 2 August 2026, while the previous publishing period covers Monday 1 June 2026 to Sunday 5 July 2026. For TfL data, the current period covers Saturday 11 July 2026 to Friday 7 August 2026, while the previous publishing period covers Saturday 6 June 2026 to Friday 10 July 2026. ↩