About 100,000 people expected to travel on 25 December, up from 60,000 in 2019
More UK buses and coaches are expected to operate on Christmas Day than at any time since figures were first collected five years ago. The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), an industry body, estimates that the number of people catching a bus on 25 December this year will hit 100,000.
The figure in 2019 was 60,000 and this grew steadily to 87,000 last year.
Bus operators are in part reacting to rising demand, which comes amid falling car ownership among young people, the CPT said.
Alison Edwards, director of policy and external relations at the CPT, said buses and coaches were the nation’s most popular form of public transport.
“Where they see demand on Christmas Day, commercial operators are stepping up and running services,” she said. “Although many of us may be putting our feet up for the day, there are plenty of people who want to get around – to visit extended family, to get to work, to visit friends in hospital or simply to get a breath of fresh air.”
Edwards added that we should also remember “that a fifth of UK households have no access to a car”. Long-distance coach operator National Express expects to run 340 journeys connecting 95 destinations on what is this year forecast to be an extremely mild day. FlixBus is scheduled to run services linking 70 destinations.
Other operators with Christmas Day services include:
Brighton and Hove buses, including the Coaster route along the Downs between Brighton and Eastbourne.
Lothian buses in Edinburgh, which will run 11 routes, including its city sightseeing tour.
The number of Christmas Day buses is rising but for people in the vast majority of places, including London and Newcastle, there will be no local services. The UK’s passenger rail network will also be completely shut down. Department for Transport figures show 22% of households in England in 2023 had no access to a car or van.
Separate statistics reveal that 29% of people aged between 17 and 20 held a full driving licence last year. That is down from 37% five years earlier.
A survey of people in that age range suggested the most common reasons for not learning to drive are the cost of lessons (38%), insurance (29%) and buying a car (28%).
Just 2% of key trains on London to Manchester line run on time
Just 2% or fewer of trains on some of the busiest Avanti West Coast services between London and Manchester are leaving and arriving on time, analysis of National Rail figures reveals.
The operator of West Coast Main Line services remains the worst rail company in the UK for delays despite its pledge of a “laser focus” on improving performance.
Among some of its worst performing services are the 8.53am weekday service from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly and the 10.15am weekday service from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston.
Of the 8.53am trains, 2% ran on time in the 12 weeks to 20 December, while 5% of trains on the 10.15am service ran on time, according to National Rail data analysed by the website On Time Trains. Points failures, landslips, delayed train crews and slow-running services on the track all contributed to delays.
This weekend, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham called for the government to appoint a “troubleshooter” to “get a grip” on the railway network. He wants Avanti West Coast to be stripped of the franchise.
He said: “Train services between the country’s most important cities are a national embarrassment.”
Avanti West Coast was awarded a new rail contract by the Tories last year with a maximum possible term of nine years. The firm was warned by the new government in the summer that it needed to take “immediate action” to improve performance.
The scale of delays is revealed as passengers face widespread disruption over Christmas. The RMT trade union has announced strike action by Avanti West Coast train managers on New Year’s Eve, 2 January, then every Sunday until 25 May. Passengers also face widespread shutdowns because of engineering works.
The most recent quarterly passenger rail performance figures for the network in Britain reported that only 41.1% of Avanti West Coast trains arrived on time from July to September 2024. This was the worst performance of any operator and a decline in punctuality compared with the same quarter last year.
An analysis by On Time Trains of National Rail’s information engine Darwin, which provides the data for train station departure board screens and mobile apps, exposes the poor performance of some of Avanti West Coast’s busiest services.
Just 3% of the 8.33am Avanti West Coast weekday service from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly have departed and arrived on time in the last 12 weeks. On Monday, it was 33 minutes late due to a fault on the train. The previous Monday it was 31 minutes late due to a landslip. On Monday 2 December it arrived 26 minutes late due to a delayed trained crew. None of the trains on the 10.53am weekday service from London to Manchester have run on time over the same period, though most delays were under 15 minutes.