Network performance statistics and customer feedback can tell us a lot about how well our bus services are operating - and what we can do to improve them.

Measuring performance

We measure network performance by comparing the number of kilometres a route has done in the last quarter.

We compare each quarter to the same quarter of the previous year, rather than the last quarter of the same year. This is because factors affecting performance, like traffic conditions, can vary depending on the time of year, so this system makes it possible to identify underlying trends.

Scheduled kilometres may not be met because journeys are cancelled or suspended due to:

  • Traffic congestion
  • Staff availability
  • Engineering problems or mechanical breakdown

Quality of service indicators (QSI) are used to monitor service reliability.

Customer satisfaction

We ask a sample of passengers to give a score out of 100 on a wide range of bus service features, based on the journey they have just made. Passengers are carefully selected each quarter to represent all bus passengers in London.

Recent figures can be found in the latest quarter summary document below.

Defining the passenger journey

A passenger journey is defined as one ride on a single vehicle - not a bus trip from A to B as this may include more than one bus ride.

Statistics include all London Buses' contracted services but exclude any non-scheduled kilometres, London Service Permit routes and other special services.

Bus speeds reports

We monitor the speeds of buses to understand the impacts of changing road network conditions. Bus speeds include time spent stationary (for example at traffic lights and at bus stops). Bus speeds are available for the entire network, by borough, and by route.

  • All data is in miles per hour
  • All AM data is taken for Mondays to Fridays, School and Non School days, between 07:00 and 10:00
  • At Route level, some routes may be appear twice. This is because a service change happened during a period. A service change may include a change to a route structure, contract or operator

Network All (to P05 2019-20)

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Network - Mon to Fri AM (07.00 to 10.00) - data to P05 2019-20

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Borough All (to P05 2019-20)

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Borough - Mon to Fri AM (07.00 to 10.00) - data to P05 2019-20

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Route All (to P05 2019-20)

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Route - Mon to Fri AM (07.00 to 10.00) - data to P05 2019-20

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Factors affecting performance

Quarter 1 2019/20: 1 April 2019 to 21 June 2019

Operated mileage results were worse than Q1 a year ago with the main reason being significant disruption arising from the Extinction Rebellion protests during April. Other events causing significant delays to buses in the quarter included the closure of Hammersmith Bridge, the London Marathon, Parliament Square Taxi demonstrations and various road traffic collisions, flooding events and emergency works. Nevertheless, the underlying trend for losses due to traffic delays is that they are being maintained at the lowest levels seen for twenty years. Included in the reasons for this are improved operating conditions arising from a reduction in roadworks, improved signal timings and a slowing of economic growth. Lost kilometres due to mechanical reasons were lower than a year ago whilst losses due to staff reasons were higher due to exceptional issues at 2 bus operating companies.

Until 2017/18, average bus speeds had been in consistent decline. The deterioration has started to reverse over the past 2 years, although speeds remain much slower than in 2014. Overall bus speeds in Q1 were slightly better than the position a year ago with inner London improving slightly and outer London getting slightly worse. The inner NW area showed a particular improvement with outer SE deteriorating (though still with the highest average speed of any area).

Compared with Q1 a year ago, EWT has improved and in overall terms is achieving some of the best ever results. Both inner and outer London achieved better than the same quarter last year with inner SE, outer NE and outer SE showing the most improvement.  Punctuality of low frequency services was much better than the same quarter a year ago and night buses departing on time has also improved.

International Bus Benchmarking Group

London is a member of the International Bus Benchmarking Group (IBBG), an international knowledge sharing network of bus companies. It was established in 2004 and is facilitated by Imperial College London.

Benchmarking is a continuous systematic process for evaluating the products, services, processes or organisations that are recognised as representing best practice for the purpose of organisational improvement. A blend of operational and customer metrics are used to track the performance of the bus network.

Every year, a review of buses performance monitoring is evaluated internally and presented to TfL's Independent Investment Programme Advisory Group (IIPAG) by Imperial College London to justify expenditure and ensure quality of service provided to passengers.

The Performance of London Buses Compared to Other World Cities

PDF 874KB