Older people are “at danger of losing their independence” because of cuts to bus services. MPs warned that the Department for Transport “must assure itself that elderly and disabled people are not excluded from bus travel”.
The number of people eligible for discounted fares using bus services is still 29% lower than before the Covid pandemic, suggesting many older people never got back into the habit of travelling after lockdown, a report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee warned.
Two in three older people cannot reach a hospital within 30 minutes by public transport and cuts to services are part of the problem, with a total of 5,000 routes closing in the past 10 years. Pressure group Later Life Ambitions told the Committee: “The lack, or availability, of suitable transport facilities and its impact on older people is often overlooked as a cause of isolation and loneliness – many are not able to travel to meet friends or family.
“This isolation can be significantly increased when the partner of one dies and the remaining partner, often women, cannot and never have driven.”
Committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “The use of bus services by elderly and disabled people has not seen the same post-COVID rebound that we’ve seen amongst fee-paying passengers – and government has not done the work to understand why this is. What we can continue to be certain of are the multiple obstacles still in the way of disabled people attempting to access bus services, and varying performance around the country making services less reliable for elderly people who might otherwise depend on them.”
He welcomed the Government’s pledge to improve bus services but added: “There is much to welcome in the government’s ambitions for improved bus services, but vague aspirations do not amount to a clear strategy.
“Only a clear vision from the centre – and, for councils, guidance on differing models of running services and proper accountability – can arrest further decline across the country. This Committee will also continue to push Government for plans on how to reflect the additional challenges in funding for rural areas. Without following our recommendations, government risks simply waiting in vain, just as too many passengers do, for reliable, accessible and safe buses to arrive.”
In a new report, the inquiry warned bus services have not been good enough for many years, particularly for people in rural areas. Bus usage had long been in decline before the Covid pandemic but journey numbers plummeted during lockdown and have still not fully recovered. In 2023-24 there were 9% fewer bus passenger journeys than in 2019-20, but the number of people paying full fare is closer to pre-Covid levels than the number eligible for discounts, such as older people and people with disabilities.
MPs said the Department for Transport could not adequately explain why elderly and disabled people have not returned to buses to the same extent as other passengers since the pandemic and must carry out more research.