FEWER passengers are boarding buses as private car use grows, figures from Transport Scotland show.

The statistics show bus use has fallen by five per cent in five years as funding for the sector dropped.

Meanwhile, air and rail passenger numbers are up, with private car use also rising despite efforts to reduce harmful traffic emissions, and the distance travelled by cyclists is down.

Greens transport spokesman John Finnie said the numbers prove the need for change, stating: “Perhaps it’s little wonder that there has been a steady decline in bus use throughout Scotland, given how many of us have come to expect long waits for delayed and non-existent buses and how poorly services here compare with other cities in the UK and Europe.

“The re-regulation of buses would stop companies cherry-picking profitable routes and leaving communities stranded.

“The rise in car use, particularly for journeys to work, illustrates how unlikely the Scottish Government is to reach the target of ten per cent of all journeys by bike by 2020.”

Colin Howden, director of sustainable transport body Transform Scotland, called the bus decline “very worrying”.

He said: “It’s not as if the Scottish Government is short of funds to invest in our bus services.

“It is currently promoting a vast tax cut for the aviation industry which will cost up to £300 million every year. This is larger than the entire bus investment budget.”

LibDem transport spokesman Mike Rumbles said climate change targets are at risk, stating: “We need action and real investment now in our bus and rail services so that we have infrastructure fit for the 21st century.”

Of the 537m public transport journeys made in 2015-16, 76 per cent involved buses. Another 17 per cent – 93.2m journeys – were made by rail, while five per cent used planes as the number of flyers went up to 25.5m. Additionally, ferry services carried 9.5m people.

Meanwhile, a total of 2.9m motor vehicles were registered in Scotland in 2015 and 83 per cent of all vehicle registrations were cars.

A distance of 45.4 billion vehicle kilometres was travelled on Scottish roads in the same period, which was a slight increase on the previous year.

At the same time, cycle traffic decreased seven per cent in distance travelled to 342m vehicle kilometres.

A Transport Scotland spokesperson said it is investing more than £1bn a year in public and active transport and that local solutions are needed to boost bus use.

They said: “We are concerned about the decline in bus patronage, something which has been continuing since at least the 1960s, well before de-regulation began in the mid-1980s.

“However, it is important to note that the decline is not seen in all areas. Indeed some areas of Scotland have shown growth over the last five years whereas others see double figures in terms of percentage of decline.

“This government will bring forward a Transport Bill that will give local authorities the framework to work in partnership with bus operators to improve services.

“Whilst we have no plans for wholesale re-regulation we do want to see more people using our public transport networks.”