Travel in London Travel in London

3. Travel trends by mode
• Passenger traffic through London’s main airports has also closely reflected the
fortunes of the wider economy, with terminal passengers at London area
airports increasing by just 1.4 per cent overall between 2008 and 2014. Between
2007 and 2010 terminal passengers decreased by an average of 3.1 per cent
each year.
• The number of licensed taxis and licensed taxi drivers in London has remained
broadly stable over the period between 2008 and 2014, at about 22,500 and
25,000 respectively. However, recent technology change has seen the number
of licensed private hire vehicles and drivers increase at a rapid rate – up by a net
27.2 and 41.1 per cent respectively between 2008 and 2014, and up by 18.8
and 19.9 per cent over the latest year alone. However, this does not appear to
have fed through directly to significantly increased traffic levels.
3.3 Modal trends: Bus
Figure 3.1 shows the long-term trend for bus patronage in London. The bus has
been one of London’s transport success stories, with the historic pattern of slowly
declining patronage being dramatically reversed in the late 1990s to one of strong
growth. Over the 13 years from 2000/01 to 2013/14, the number of bus journey
stages in London increased by 59.9 per cent, and passenger-kilometres grew by
73.8 per cent.
The rate of growth has stabilised in more recent years, this corresponding to a
slowing of the rate of increase in bus services. Over the period between 2008/09
and 2014/15 the increase in patronage was 6.2 per cent in terms of journey stages,
and 6 per cent in terms of passenger kilometres. In the most recent year it was just
0.1 per cent in terms of journey stages and 0.1 per cent in terms of passenger
kilometres.
Figure 3.1 Passenger kilometres and journey stages travelled by bus.
25,000
Passenger kilometres
Journey stages
3,000
Passenger kilometres (millions)
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
New estimation method for
bus introduced in 2007/08.
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
Passenger journey stages (millions)
0
-
Source: TfL Service Performance data.
51 Travel in London, Report 8