Helps Deliver Inclusive Economic Growth

Barriers to Public Transport Use

Bus

In 2022, 16% of respondents to the Scottish Household Survey who used the bus infrequently said that nothing discouraged them from using the bus more often. This is an increase from the baseline position which was 13%. A ‘lack of service’ was mentioned by 10% of respondents, an increase on the baseline position (8%). As in 2019, this issue was more pronounced for those in rural areas (24%) compared to those in urban areas (6%).

‘No direct route’ was given as a reason by 4% of respondents, a decrease on the baseline position of 7%. This again was more prevalent for those in rural areas (6%) compared to those in urban areas (4%).

Train

In 2023, 25% of Scottish Household Survey respondents said that nothing had discouraged them from using the train more often. This is a slight increase from the baseline position of 22%. The fact that there was ‘no nearby station’ was mentioned by 21% of respondents, a slight decrease from the baseline position of 24%.

No nearby station was reported by a larger proportion of those living in rural areas (38%) as opposed to those living in urban areas (16%).

‘Lack of service’: among those who hadn’t used the train in the last month, this was reported by 1% of those in urban areas, compared to 3% of those in rural areas.

‘No direct route’: among those who hadn’t used the train in the last month, this was reported by 1% of those in urban areas, compared to 3% of those in rural areas.

Rail Reliability and Punctuality

In 2022-23, 89.0% of ScotRail services, arrived on time. This is the same as at the baseline figures for 2019-20.

In 2022-23, 95% of ScotRail trains arrived within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, 2% arrived 20 or more minutes late, and 2% were cancelled. This is also similar to the baseline figures for 2019-20.(Note, operation of Scotrail service changed from the baseline period from Abellio to Transport Scotland in 2022).

Ferry Reliability and Punctuality

For ferry services, there are measures of both contractual reliability and actual reliability. Contractual makes allowances for circumstances out with operators’ control, including extreme weather conditions.

For Caledonian MacBrayne, measures of both contractual and actual reliability of lifeline ferry services were high. The level of contractual reliability (the number of timetabled sailings actually operated) was 99% in 2022-23 and the level of punctuality (against the published timetable) was 100%. This is similar to the baseline of 2019-20. For the measures of actual reliability and punctuality, corresponding figures for 2022-23 published in CalMac’s strategic report were 95% and 97% respectively.

For Northlink, the level of contractual reliability of lifeline ferry services that were both punctual and reliable was 100% for both Aberdeen routes and the Pentland Firth in 2022-23. This is the same as the baseline position of 2019-20. Figures quoted by Northlink Ferries performance monitoring report on actual reliability and punctuality for 2022-23 are 97% and 90% respectively.

Satisfaction with Public Transport

Overall, satisfaction with public transport was lower in 2023 than in 2019.

The proportion of all survey respondents stating that they were very or fairly satisfied with public transport in 2023 was 64%, a four-percentage point drop from 2019 (68%). Satisfaction with public transport was higher amongst actual users of public transport (those that had used bus or train in the past month) with 74% of users reporting that they were satisfied in 2023. This is similar to levels of satisfaction recorded in 2019 (76%). When looking specifically at bus and train users, 77% of bus users and 71% of train users reported that they were satisfied with public transport.

Satisfaction with public transport was lowest in rural areas. Satisfaction rates for those living in remote rural and accessible rural areas (47% and 46% respectively) contrasted with a satisfaction rate of 72% for those living in large urban areas.

Tourism Visitors

International

In 2023, international travel to Scotland continued its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit numbers, nights spent and visitor spending all surpassed the levels seen in both 2019 and 2022.

International visitors made a total of 4 million visits to Scotland, stayed for 34.4 million nights and spent £3,593 million.

Visits were up 23% compared to 2022 and 15% compared to 2019.

The number of nights went up by 20% from 2022 and 25% from 2019.

Visitor spending increased in nominal terms by 13% compared to 2022 and by 41% compared to 2019.

Domestic

In 2023, Great Britain residents took 12.6 million overnight trips in Scotland with 34.6 million nights and £3.2 billion spent overall. When compared with 2019, the volume of domestic trips and nights was higher in 2023. The level of spend was the same as in 2019.

11% of all GB trips included an overnight stay in Scotland, with the share of total GB nights and spend at 10%.

The average duration of Scotland trips during the reporting period was 2.7 nights with an average spend per trip of £251.

Holiday trips made up the largest proportion of overnight trips taken in Scotland in 2023. It accounted for just over a third of total trips, 42% of total nights and 41% of spend.

Road Freight

Road freight is divided into inter-Scottish freight, imports and exports.

Inter-Scottish freight – freight with both an origin and a destination in Scotland - declined from 158.7 million tonnes in 2004 to 103.2 million tonnes in 2019. The figure for 2022, which due to methodological changes to the survey of freight operators is not directly comparable with earlier years, is 97.8 million tonnes.

Scottish exports to the rest of the UK were 15 million tonnes in 2022. This figure is not comparable with earlier years.

Scottish exports to out with the UK were 0.3 million tonnes in 2022. This figure is not comparable with earlier years.

Scottish imports from the rest of the UK were 18 million tonnes in 2022, while imports from the rest of the world were 0.2 million tonnes over the same period. These figures are not comparable with earlier years.

Water Freight

Water freight has declined from to 67 million tonnes in 2019 to 59 million tonnes in 2022. This includes inbound and outbound freight.

Air Freight

Air freight has fallen from 58,914 tonnes in 2019 to 50,106 tonnes in 2022.

Rail Freight

In Scotland, total freight lifted by rail between April 2022 and March 2023 was four million tonnes, similar to the baseline position at 2019-2020. While this data refers to a distinct timeframe and is therefore not strictly comparable to the statistics above, it should indicate the relative scale of rail freight compared to other modes.

Journey Times to Basic Services

To demonstrate journey times – via walking and public transport – to basic services, Transport Scotland commissioned bespoke analysis for the baseline report to determine the fastest available journey time from the population weighted centroid (PWC) of each data zone to the closest example of a key service within specific time periods on a weekday. This analysis has not been replicated for this report as it is unlikely the results will have changed significantly since the baseline due to the way the data is gathered for this indicator. The full analysis and technical note for this indicator can be found in the National Transport Strategy Monitoring and Evaluation baseline report but a summary is provided below.

In total, there were 365 data zones – 95% of the total – that could access a public transport hub within an 800 metre walk from the PWC of the data zone. This primarily related to access to a bus stop.

By comparison, 5.2% of data zones did not have access to public transport in the terms described above.

Looking at key services, the most accessible are primary schools. These are accessible by public transport within 20 minutes by 91% of data zones (between 6:00am and 9:00am), followed by large food outlets, which 88% of data zones could access within 20 minutes (between 10:00am and 14:00pm).

More deprived areas had slightly better access to public transport than less deprived areas. The most deprived 20% of data zones had the highest percentage that could access primary schools (99%), GPs (96%), food outlets (97%), secondary schools (71%), railway stations (71%) and further education (43%) within twenty minutes.

Urban areas, and large urban areas in particular, tended to have better access to services than rural areas. In around 24% of remote rural areas, there was no access to public transport, as was the case in around 18% of accessible rural areas (compared to around 1% of data zones in large urban areas).

Journey Times to Areas of Employment

To demonstrate journey times – via walking and public transport – to areas of employment, Transport Scotland commissioned bespoke analysis for the baseline report on the number of jobs in and journey times to key employment destinations via public transport from the PWC of each data zone in Scotland. To provide an estimate of access to employment, jobs have been identified via the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES). Data zones which contain 50% of the total employment have been identified as the key employment destinations within each local authority. This analysis has not been replicated for this update report as it is unlikely the results will have changed significantly since the baseline due to the way the data is gathered for this indicator. The full analysis and technical note for this indicator can be found in the baseline National Transport Strategy Monitoring and Evaluation baseline report but a summary is provided below.

Between 6am and 10am, a mean of 27,387 jobs were available via employment sites across all data zones within half an hour via public transport. A mean of 115,797 jobs were available within one hour via public transport.

Between 10am and 2pm, a mean of 22,834 jobs were available via employment sites in employment destinations across all data zones within half an hour via public transport. A mean of 108,750 jobs were available within one hour via public transport.

Between 6am and 10am, a mean of 427,704 jobs were available via employment sites across all data zones within two hours via public transport. Between 10am and 2pm, a mean of 426,145 jobs were available within two hours via public transport.