Passengers across England will be able to start tracking their bus in real time through Google Maps from Thursday, ministers have announced.
The technology acts like a hail-ride taxi app, such as Uber, giving users live information on where their bus is and how long it will take to arrive at their stop, ending the “guesswork” when it comes to catching a bus, the Department for Transport claims.
Officials have said that while the technology will be familiar to those living in London, the live tracker function will be rolled out for the first time to all of England, including people living in rural parts of the country.
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Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the new technology will end the need for people to “stand and hope” for a bus to turn up, making public transport safer and more efficient for users.
In particular, it is hoped the app will give women and girls greater confidence to travel by bus, as it will allow them to know exactly when their bus will arrive, meaning they can plan when to make their way to the bus stop, she said.
Tech follows years of cuts to bus services
Announcing the new measure, Alexander told The i Paper: “Passengers should not be left guessing when their bus will turn up, no matter where they live.
“Passengers will know exactly where their bus is and when it will arrive, so they can leave home at the right moment rather than standing at a stop and hoping.”
And she added: “This is a step towards a more joined-up transport network fit for the modern day, whether you’re in a city centre or a rural village.”
The new bus tracking technology comes against the backdrop of years of cuts to bus services across the country, particularly in rural areas.
There will also likely be concerns about whether passengers will have enough signal to be able to check the app on their phones with rural areas in the UK notorious for “not spots”.
A House of Commons report published in December revealed that while 99 per cent of the English landmass has 4G coverage from at least one provider, coverage from all four operators was at only 88 per cent.
It added that a Spring 2025 update from Ofcom estimated the 5G coverage at 65 per cent of the UK landmass from at least one provider.
The Labour Government has sought to pump an extra £3bn into improving buses in England, and has sought to keep fares capped at £3 despite pressure to allow fares to rise even higher.
Councils have cut 16 million miles of bus routes
A 2024 analysis by The i Paper revealed that cash-strapped councils had been forced to cut a combined 16 million miles of bus routes over the last 15 years, leaving millions of people marooned.
Since 2010, bus mileage – the number of miles run by either the local authority or commercial operators – has fallen by more than 300 million miles, government figures show.
Labour has pledged to maintain fare caps at £3 in many places, and several local authorities are taking buses back under public control in order to restore and expand routes.
The latest figures show buses ran more than a billion miles in England last year, an increase of 2 per cent on the year before.
But bus availability and usage outside London remains vastly reduced on where it was before austerity cuts began under the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government in 2010.
Sarah-Jayne Williams, director of geo partnerships at Google Maps, said: “By integrating real-time bus information across England into Google Maps, we are giving millions of passengers the confidence to plan their journeys accurately.”
