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# Long description

This is an area chart showing the changes in UK passenger transport by different modes between 1952 and 2018. It is broken down into: rail, shown in green; a group consisting of buses and coaches, shown in yellow; pedal cycles, shown in grey; motorcycles, shown in red; a group consisting of cars, vans, and taxis, shown in light brown and then internal air travel, shown in blue. At the left it has a y-axis labelled ‘passenger kilometres in billions’, with a scale running from zero to 900. At the bottom is an x-axis, which runs from 1952 to 2018 and labelled ‘year’. Overall, there has been an enormous growth in passenger transport, the total number of passenger kilometres rising strongly from 220 billion in 1952 to about 400 billion in 1970 and on to 750 billion in 2000. After that, growth has slowed, only reaching 800 billion in 2018. The rail contribution is relatively small starting at 38 billion in 1952 and remaining at about that level until 1995 after which it has grown steadily to about 80 billion in 2018. The contribution from buses and coaches has a slow falling trend. It starts at 92 billion in 1952, falling to 60 billion in 1970 and to only 35 billion in 2018. The contribution from pedal cycles is small, starting at 23 billion in 1952, falling to only 4 billion in 1970 and only rising slightly to 5 billion in 2018. The contribution from motorcycles is also small, starting at 7 billion in 1952, falling to about 4 billion in 1970 and rising slightly to 5 billion in 2018. The contribution from cars, vans and taxis shows spectacular growth across the chart. It starts at 58 billion in 1952, rising to nearly 300 billion in 1970, nearly 590 billion in 1990 and 640 billion in 2000. The growth then slows to reach 670 billion in 2018. The contribution from internal air travel is small. It is virtually zero in 1952, growing to only 2 billion in 1970 and then to a peak of about 10 billion in 2005 before falling slightly to only 9 billion in 2018.