London's bus network experienced its lowest average speed since comparable records began in 2013-14, reaching 9.18mph in 2025-26. This represents a 4.8% decrease over the period.
Passenger journeys in the capital have fallen by more than 300 million a year, a 16% reduction, since 2013. This decline occurs despite London's population growing by nearly a million people.
Delays have worsened on high-frequency routes, where passengers now wait 22% longer than anticipated, an increase from 18% in 2018. The size of London's bus network has also shrunk, with TfL buses travelling approximately 460 million km annually over the past three years, down from an average of 487 million km between 2010 and 2019.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has expressed concern about bus usage, attributing it partly to a lack of reliability caused by bus speed. Research cited by Transport for London (TfL) suggests that a 10% fall in speed can lead to a 6% drop in demand.
This trend of declining bus speeds is not unique to London, with a 2026 report by the Transport Strategy Centre (TSC) at Imperial College London identifying a "persistent decline in bus speeds" over the past decade in 15 networks across Europe, Asia, and North America.