Hertfordshire passengers took millions more bus journeys last year, blowing past pre-pandemic levels.

New figures from the Department for Transport show passengers in Hertfordshire took 23.3 million bus journeys in the year to March.

This was up from 20.9 million the year before and more than the pre-pandemic number, 21.9 million, following a slump in the wake of lockdown.

(Image: Arriva) It bucks the national trend, which saw 3.6 billion total bus journeys across England represent a seven per cent rise on the year before but fail to come close to the 4.1 billion figure before the pandemic.

Silviya Barrett from Campaign for Better Transport said: "It’s encouraging that once again we’re seeing more people take the bus, helped by the £2 bus fare cap making bus travel more affordable in the past year. But to truly see more people using buses more frequently, we need to see a boost to service provision and frequency too.

"We urge the government to introduce a bus service guarantee in the forthcoming Better Buses Bill, to define a minimum level of bus services in every community and ensure that local authorities have the necessary long-term funding to deliver them."

The figures also showed the number of bus journeys in Hertfordshire has fallen by 17 per cent from five years ago, while the last decade has seen the number drop by 29 per cent.

Meanwhile, separate figures from the Office for National Statistics show bus and coach fares in the first three months of 2024 were six times higher than the same period in 1987, compared with a five-fold increase in train fares and motoring costs rising by around three-and-a-half times.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in October that the cap on single bus fares in England will rise from £2 to £3 from January 1.

At the end of 2023, 78 buses and coaches were licenced in Watford, according to a Department for Transport report published earlier in the year.

This was down from 81 the year before and represented a 64 per cent fall since 2014.