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Future of the UK coach industry

What is a coach?

There is no single definition of a coach. The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 distinguish coaches from buses principally by their design: coaches are vehicles constructed to carry seated passengers, whereas buses are designed to carry both seated and standing passengers.

Coach services also differ from local bus services in the journeys they typically provide. Local bus services generally carry passengers paying separate fares over relatively short distances. Scheduled coaches instead commonly operate longer-distance services between towns, cities and transport hubs such as airports. The sector also includes private hire coaches used by schools, businesses, tour operators and other groups.

Some scheduled coach routes can legally be local bus services for part or all of their route. A local service generally has stopping places no more than 15 miles apart.

While (motorised) bus services existed prior to the First World War, the first long-distance coach service is often considered to be Greyhound Motors’ service between Bristol and London. This was introduced just over 100 years ago, in February 1925.

Impact of coach travel

While there are no official statistics on the number of passengers using coaches in the United Kingdom, research undertaken for the Confederation of Passenger Transport estimated that coaches provide 450 million passenger journeys a year in Great Britain. It also estimated that the coach industry in Great Britain supports 81,000 jobs, generating £6.4 billion of economic value through employment.

Government policy on coach travel

Page 38 of the government’s integrated transport strategy, Better Connected (2 April 2026) acknowledges that coaches have often been overlooked in transport planning, and says that government guidance, including on Local Transport Plans, will be updated so that provision for coaches and their passengers is planned appropriately:

Coaches can be particularly overlooked in transport planning yet provide essential links between many towns, cities, airports and other destinations – with a reach greater than the rail network. They also connect people to education through home to school services, get people to their destination when trains stop running, and make significant contributions to the visitor economy. Towns and destinations that welcome just one extra 49-seater coach a day can bring up to £1 million a year into their local economy. In future, local authorities will be expected to recognise the role and contribution of coach services and plan appropriate provision for them and their passengers. These expectations will be reflected in government guidance, including Local Transport Plan guidance.

Actions taken by the UK Government since the 2024 general election to support the coach industry include changes to training requirements for drivers to address driver shortages, funding for charging infrastructure for zero emission coaches and a reduction in fuel duty.

Driver training requirements

In 2023, the Conservative government consulted on making changes to the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) qualification. In May 2024, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency announced it would make changes to the CPC qualification in two stages. These were subsequently made following the 2024 general election:

• From 3 December 2024 the government introduced a new National Driver CPC for drivers operating only within the UK. This has less stringent training requirements compared to the International Driver CPC.
• From 1 February 2025 the government introduced a more flexible route for qualified drivers whose CPC had expired to return to professional driving.

Charging infrastructure for zero emission coaches

In 2025, the UK Government launched a pilot project to part-fund the installation of charging infrastructure at HGV, van and coach depots. This was subsequently extended to comprise a £170 million multi-year funding programme from April 2026 to 2030.

While support for the purchase of electric vans and HGVs is available through the Zero Emission Van and Truck Grant, this does not cover the purchase of electric coaches.

Fuel duty

The rate of fuel duty was decreased by 5p per litre by the Conservative government in March 2022. This decreased rate was then maintained by the Conservative and Labour governments since. All modes of road transport, including coaches, have been able to take advantage of this reduction in fuel duty. Further information on fuel duty is given in the Library briefing Fuel duty: Developments since 2022.

Issues facing the coach industry

Organisations representing the industry, such as the Road Haulage Association and Confederation for Passenger Transport, have identified a number of key issues facing the coach industry, including:

• a shortage of drivers
• the transition to low emission coaches
• accessibility of coaches

The Road Haulage Association’s Coaches: A Clear Route to Growth (PDF, May 2025) and the Confederation for Passenger Transport’s 2025 coach policy priorities include a number of measures to address these issues including:

• Asking the government to work with the coach industry to produce a workforce strategy to deal with a shortage of coach drivers and an aging workforce.
• Introducing skills bootcamps for Category D drivers.
• Further government support for the transition to zero-emission coaches, including working with the coach industry to set a “realistic phase out date for new non-zero-emission coaches”.
• Incentivising low-carbon fuel adoption
• Investing in road infrastructure to support the net zero transition
• Clarification of how legislation on accessibility applies to coaches.

Coach manufacturing and sales

It is difficult to assess the size of the UK coach manufacturing and sales sectors because official economic statistics do not separately identify coaches.

Coach manufacturing is included within the broader “manufacture of motor vehicles" sector (SIC 2910), which also covers cars, vans, lorries and buses. Coach sales are similarly included within the broader "sale of other motor vehicles" sector (SIC 4519). This means official statistics on employment, businesses or economic output for these sectors cannot be used to identify the contribution of coaches alone.

Zero-emission coaches

In July 2025, the Department for Transport published a summary of responses to its earlier consultation on ending the sale of new non-zero-emission buses and calls for evidence on decarbonising coaches and minibuses.

For coaches, the government has not set a phase-out date for new non-zero-emission vehicles. Instead, the document summarises evidence from industry on the particular challenges involved in moving to zero-emission coaches. The government said it was considering mechanisms to support the coach and minibus sectors to decarbonise.

Respondents said coaches face different challenges from local buses because they often travel much longer distances and may not return regularly to a home depot. Zero-emission coaches may therefore need ranges of hundreds of miles and access to charging or refuelling at locations such as coach parks and motorway service areas. Respondents also highlighted grid constraints, infrastructure costs and uncertainty over whether battery-electric or hydrogen fuel-cell technology would be most suitable.

Operators and trade bodies also said the coach sector had not benefited from dedicated decarbonisation funding in the same way as the bus sector. They highlighted that most coaches are operated by SMEs, with relatively few large operators.

This contrasts with local buses. The government is taking forward legislation that would, from 2030 at the earliest, prevent new non-zero-emission buses from being used on local bus services in England. Existing non-zero-emission buses would still be able to continue operating.

Funding

Coaches are eligible for funding under the government’s DRIVE35 programme, which supports the development and manufacture of zero-emission vehicles and their supply chains. The programme was announced alongside the government’s Industrial Strategy and Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan in June 2025 and launched the following month.

DRIVE35 currently provides a total of £4 billion of capital and research and development funding for the automotive industry to 2035. Its funding includes support for developing and scaling up UK manufacturing of zero-emission vehicle technologies.