There was an 18% increase this May compared to the same month last year in the number of people using Orkney’s bus services.
36,130 passenger trips were recorded across all public bus services in Orkney during May 2024.
Changes were made to bus routes and increased frequency for some at the start of May and clearly ‘if you build it they will come’ definitely has worked for Orkney.
From the period 1 January to 31 December 2023 there were a total of 311,187 passenger trips recorded across all public bus services in Orkney.
Transportation Service Manager at Orkney Islands Council, Laura Cromarty, said:
“Orkney has seen bus passenger growth year on year unlike the steady decline seen across the rest of Scotland.
“Significant investment has been made by the Council following the last School and Public Bus Contract award in August 2021, which saw the main operator Stagecoach submit a tender on the basis of a brand new fleet of accessible low floor, low emission vehicles for the county.
“Bus passenger figures are not just positive on Mainland Orkney, we have also seen growth in our island public bus services operated in Westray, Sanday and Hoy.
“Increased tourism, the cost-of-living crisis, in-migration to the county, and the introduction of the Scottish Government’s Under 22 Free Bus Scheme have almost certainly contributed to increased passenger numbers on the bus services we subsidise – as well as our new low emission fleet, reliable service and enhancements to services.
“For example, based on discussions with Stagecoach, the X1 has been enhanced to provide more frequency and to call in past the historic sites over the summer period. The 8S providing a link to Skara Brae has been enhanced on a commercial basis, going from a three day per week service to a six day per week operation.
“Evening bus services on a Friday and Saturday have also continued thanks to external grant funding and match funding through the Sustainable and Green Transport Fund, established through bus passenger fare income.”
What’s it like across Scotland?
The outlook for bus usage across the country is different. In some places, like Edinburgh, it also continues to increase. Lothian buses saw its passenger numbers increase by over 17% from 94 million in 2022 to 110 million last year. Other key numbers in Lothian, Lothian Country and East Coast Buses in 2023 include:
- 26.7 million miles operated throughout 2023
- 63 daytime services, 19 night bus routes and special event services
- 413 drivers recruited and trained by Lothian’s dedicated training team
- 100,000 contactless taps recorded in a single day in August
- 369,688 downloads of Lothian’s journey planner app
- 1,225,251 visits to the journey planner webpage
In Scotland as a whole the number of bus journeys increased by 29% in 2022-23, although this was still down 17% from 2019-20. Prior to this, bus passenger numbers had been following a generally declining trend, dropping by 10% in the ten years leading up to 2019-20
Key points
- 301 million journeys were made by bus in 2022-23. This is an increase of 29 per cent on 2021-22. Almost a half of these were made under the National Concessionary Travel Scheme.
- There were 2.3 million people with National Concessionary Travel cards in Scotland in 2023.
- The bus industry received £266 million in funding for concessionary fare support and £204 million from local or central government in 2022-23. Passenger revenue in 2022-23 stood at £275 million in Scotland.
The Orkney News has been checking out some of the bus routes:
- Travelling by bus in Orkney: Service X1 Stromness to Kirkwall
- Travelling by Bus in #Orkney: Service 5 Stromness to Houton
- Travelling by Bus in Orkney : Sandwick to Kirkwall on the 8S
- Top Tips for Visiting the Standing Stones & Brodgar
Fiona Grahame