Transport User Voice – January 2022 – Attitudes to public transport

16 December 2021

Omicron nervousness increases

In our latest Travel during Covid-19 survey, people were showing signs of being more nervous about rail and bus travel. Perceptions of safety on buses and trains have fallen slightly among users and non-users. Increasing proportions say that coronavirus is a major concern for them and that they have been avoiding unnecessary activities as a result. 

Face-covering compliance appears to be high, and people are likely to agree that they feel safer using public transport with people wearing face coverings. The level of satisfaction with the number of people wearing face coverings and the Covid measures that are in place on public transport has increased recently. 

82 per cent of people who used a train in England (excluding London) and 86 per cent of those who used a bus (excluding London) say that they wore a face covering when they did so for the whole of their journey. As might be expected, in each case this is a significant increase compared with results last collected, at the start of October. 

85 per cent of those who used a train in the last seven days felt safe doing so; the perception of safety on train continues to fall gradually compared to previous waves. 57 per cent of those who haven’t made a journey by train in the last seven days say that they would feel safe making a journey by this mode of transport, compared with 63 per cent who said the same last week. 

86 per cent of those who used a bus in the last seven days say that they felt safe doing so. Though 51 per cent of those who haven’t made a journey by bus say that they would feel safe to do so – down from 56 per cent at the last wave.  

How satisfied are passengers with their journey? 

In our weekly rail survey, overall passenger satisfaction is 83 per cent. This is down from 85 per cent last week and from 88 per cent the week before that. Satisfaction with value for money decreased from 64 per cent last week to 59 per cent. Satisfaction with punctuality/reliability dropped from 84 per cent last week to 78 per cent. 

In our latest report, we also published additional analysis exploring the first twelve weeks of satisfaction data by individual train companies. 

In our Bus User Weekly Survey, overall passenger satisfaction has dipped to 83 per cent from 86 per cent last week. Satisfaction with value for money dropped from 69 per cent last week to 65 per cent this week. 

We have also explored how satisfied passengers are by national bus operators, and between countries and regions across Great Britain. 

You can explore all of these results and more on our data hub. 

Back to newsletter.