Miles covered by bus services in Wales fall by 20 per cent in a decade

Figures from the Department for Transport also show that journeys covered by local authorities also dropped by 45 per cent between 2006/07 and 2016/17.

The number of miles clocked up each year by buses in Britain has hit its lowest point in 28 years.

And Wales has suffered the highest losses out of the home countries, losing a fifth of its miles in the past decade.

The nation has seen its bus mileage drop by 3 million miles between 1985/1986 and 2016/2017, which is a decrease of 5.1 per cent.

There has also been a 16 per cent reduction in passenger journeys over the last decade. There were 119 million journeys in 2006/2007 and 100 million miles in 2016/2017.

But the report’s findings have been called “misleading” by the Welsh Government, who have said that train journeys have increased during the same period.

A spokesman said: “The report’s failure to recognise growth in bus journeys experienced on some local services and the longer distance TrawsCymru services paints a misleading and incomplete picture of public transport use and provision.

“Whilst we note there has been a reduction in bus passenger journeys over the last decade, over the same period train journeys have increased by 33%.

“We want an integrated public transport network – road, rail and Active Travel – that will improve the availability and accessibility of local travel.”