Department of Transport

Transport statistics for London 1996

date 24 October 1996   source Department of Transport   type Press release

The 1996 edition of 'Transport Statistics for London' is published
today. It has 30 sections covering a wide range of facts and figures
on transport in the capital, together with background information.

There are indications of further increases in transport demand in
London including:

In autumn 1995, the number of people entering central London daily
between 7am and 10am was 993,000. This was a small increase on 1994,
after a period of decline from 1988 to 1993. The proportion using
public transport remained constant at 83 per cent. The population of
London has grown slowly over the last ten years, and exceeded seven
million in 1995 for the first time since the 1970s. The population
growth from 1991 to 1995 was two per cent. However, total employment
in London in 1996 is still ten per cent lower than the 1988 peak of
four million, in spite of some growth in 1993 and 1994. The average
daily total vehicle flow on major roads increased by about two per
cent between 1991 and 1995. This increase was accounted for almost
completely by cars and taxis, which are over 80 per cent of the total
flow. Bus passenger travel increased by about three per cent in
1995-96 to over four billion passenger kilometres, following a steady
decline from the late 1980s to 1993-94.

The distance travelled by passengers on London Underground's
network rose by five per cent in 1995-96, to 6.3 billion kilometres,
taking it above the previous peak in 1988-89. The number of
passenger journeys rose three per cent but is still below the 1988-89
peak. London Transport achieved a gross operating surplus of #130m
in 1995-96, up from #24m (on continuing operations) in 1994-95. This
was the second year for which no revenue grant was required. The
distance travelled by train passengers in the South East increased by
three per cent to 13 billion kilometres between 1994-95 and 1995-96,
but is still 12 per cent below the 1988-89 peak. Following the
extension of the Docklands Light Railway network to Beckton in 1994,
the number of train kilometres run has increased by a third from
1994-95 to 1995-96. The number of passengers travelling from
London's airports rose by six per cent between 1994 and 1995, and by
71 per cent in total since 1985.

Other points of interest include:

In 1995, 75 per cent of people working in central London travelled
to work by public transport, compared with only 43 per cent in London
as a whole and 14 per cent in Great Britain. The average travel time
to work in 1995 for those working in central London was 54 minutes,
more than twice as high as the Great Britain average of 24 minutes.
Nearly a million trips were made on London's 'Dial-a-ride' services
for disabled people in 1995-96, using over 200 buses. In 1993-95,
the average distance travelled per year by residents of Greater
London was about 5,000 miles (just under a hundred miles a week),
almost the same as in 1985-86. Inner London residents used cars for
61 per cent of the distance travelled in 1993-95, compared with 71
per cent for residents of outer London. In 1994-95, households in
London spent about #31 a week on motoring, and #12 on fares and other
travel costs. In 1991, just over half the households in inner London
did not have use of a car or van, compared to a third in outer
London. The number of licensed vehicles registered to owners in
London has increased by seven per cent between 1985 and 1995,
compared with 21 per cent nationally. The number of people killed on
London's roads has fallen by about 60 per cent since the early 1980s,
to just over 200 in 1995. By August 1996, over six million
passengers had been carried by Eurostar trains to Paris and Brussels
since services started in November 1994.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. "Transport Statistics for London 1996" (ISBN 0-11-551875-4) is
published by HMSO, price #18.95.

2. Topics covered include: population and employment, traffic
patterns and investment, road traffic, and public transport traffic
and service quality.

# = pounds sterling

Railnews Archive ::: 1996-10-24 DoT-001

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