Concessionary bus travel statistics

This page presents statistics on concessionary travel in Surrey, which are based on survey data collected from Surrey County Council in its role as a Travel Concession Authority ('TCA'). Concessionary travel relates to when eligible people travel on reduced (or free) fares.

These statistics cover:

• older and disabled concessionary passes;

• concessionary bus journeys;

• payments made by TCAs to reimburse operators; and

• financial breakdowns for operating concessionary schemes.

Source: Concessionary Travel Survey, data returned to Department for Transport annually.

For further information including methodology, data for other areas, and the annual report for all of England, please see: Concessionary Travel Statistics: year ending March 2025

Extracts for Surrey taken from BUS08: Measures of concessionary bus travel by Travel Concession Authority (TCA) and metropolitan area status.

Data trends

Number of passes

The number of concessionary passes is provided as a snapshot at end of March each year. Most will be valid and active, though a small number may be held by people who have died or moved away.

Total volume exceeded 200,000 in 2016, from which time numbers have generally fallen until 2023, and have been rising slightly since then - in line with the period of increasing cost of living. At end of March 2025 there were 155,328 older concessionary passes and 7,684 disabled concessionary passes. As a per capita rate per hundred eligible older people (eligibility roughly equates to of state pension age) just 68.7 people in every hundred hold a concessionary pass.

Number of journeys made

Total concessionary journeys made was highest at the beginning of the time series, with 7,316,971 journeys in the year ending March 2015. Annual volumes then declined steadily over subsequent years before plummeting in the period corresponding to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown year of 2020-21 when just 1,541,865 concessionary journeys were made.

The number has increased steadily since that time yet was still only 4,343,362 in year ending March 2025 - still significantly down on pre-pandemic volumes.

Considered in terms of the average number of journeys made per pass in circulation, it is clear to see that concessionary bus passes are not being used excessively. In 2014/2015 each pass made an average of 39 journeys. This fell to just 9 in the pandemic year of 2020/2021 before rising again. In the year ending March 2025 each pass holder made an average of just 27 journeys each year - the equivalent of just above one return trip each per month.