High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Thursday, December 20, 2007
Travel Information and Concessionary Fares
In 2006, the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) found that 80% of adults who had used a local bus service in the past month agreed that finding out about routes and times was easy. Similarly, 85% of rail users interviewed in 2005 agreed that finding out about routes and times was easy. However, 24% of all householders interviewed in 2006 said that they did not know the frequency of services at their nearest bus stop.
Traveline Scotland "went live" for telephone calls on 3 January 2001. The number of calls answered has risen rapidly, from 195,000 in 2001 to 729,000 in 2006 (an average of about 2,000 per day).
The Traveline Web site was formally launched on 16 December 2002, and had 2.7 million hits in 2005 (an average of about 7,300 per day). The website supplier changed on 1 January 2006 and the new supplier defined hits in a more robust way than the previous supplier. The number of hits in 2006 was 1.9 million. In interviews conducted in 2005 and 2006, the SHS found that 5% of adults said that they had used Traveline to get information or advice about travel before making a journey by public transport before the interview.
A national minimum standard of free off-peak local bus travel for elderly and disabled people in Scotland was introduced on 30th September 2002. The figures for the 2003/04 financial year were the first to show the full effects of this, and also the effects of the extension, on 1 April 2003, of the arrangements to men aged 60-64 (who then became eligible to receive the same travel benefits as women aged 60+ and men aged 65+).
The total number of bus journeys made under concessionary fare schemes has increased from about 103 million in 2001/02 to over 147 million in 2005/06 and increased further, following the introduction of free Scotland-wide bus travel (with no restriction at "peak" times) for elderly and disabled people on 1st April 2006, to over 158 million in 2006-07.
Source: Scottish Transport Statistics
Further Information