Satisfaction with public transport remains steady

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

A survey of Scotland’s transport and travel habits has found that satisfaction levels with public transport have remained steady over the most recent year covered by the survey.

Transport Scotland statisticians today released the Transport and Travel in Scotland 2025 publication. The publication includes a range of statistics from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) about the journeys people make and how they travel.

The survey found that 64% of people were very or fairly satisfied with public transport in 2025. This was the same as in 2023 and 2024, but lower than before the pandemic (68% in 2019).

Satisfaction with public transport was higher amongst actual users of public transport (those that had used bus or train in the past month) and lower for those living in rural areas. 70% of public transport users reported that they were satisfied in 2025. Satisfaction rates for those living in remote rural and accessible rural areas (42% and 45% respectively) contrasted with a satisfaction rate of 74% for those living in large urban areas.

The survey also recorded that 70% of people found their transport costs very or fairly easy to afford in 2025, an increase from 64% in 2022 when the question was first included in the survey.

In other findings, survey respondents reported an increase in bus and rail use. 43% of survey respondents had used the bus in the past month, a rise on 2024 (39%) and a return to the levels of use seen before the pandemic. 33% of survey respondents had used the train in the last month, a rise from 31% in 2024, although use of the train ‘every day or almost every day’ remains lower than it was before the pandemic.

Half of all journeys (50%) made by survey respondents were made as the driver of a car or van. Walking was the next most popular transport mode, accounting for 28% of journeys.