Ring and Ride usage across the West Midlands drops, figures show

Figures presented to the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Transport Delivery Overview and Scrutiny Committee showed, between July and September 2025, 54,498 journeys were completed.

This was a 2.63 per cent drop from the same time in 2024 when 55,971 trips were made.

Committee members were told a number of changes to the service have come into effect from December 1 last year.

Ring and Ride and Coventry’s On Demand services have been brought together under a new operation known as West Midlands Bus On Demand in a bid to make the network simpler to use.

Demand responsive transport in Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry will be run by operator Via. A new contract for the Black Country Ring and Ride service has been awarded to operator HATS.

Claire Williams, director of network resilience at Transport for West Midlands, said: “West Midlands On Demand has reduced slightly.

“This is largely due to the reduced performance in quarter 2 of 25/26. We had driver shortages and reduced reliability with increased congestion.

“The impact on passenger satisfaction was limited during that time due to pre-booked nature of the service.

“Very recently, December 1, we have mobilised two new operators to the service and this is initially with reduced capacity which will gradually increase as they become settled into the new service.

“That new service will also include the introduction of the new fully accessible vehicles, full re-brand, service enhancements that lead to increased efficiency and eventually to grow that patronage.”

Councillor Carol Hyatt agreed driver shortages were to blame and added ‘demand continues to outstrip supply’ for the service.

Statistics also showed a reduction in cycle hire journeys for with 38,849 recorded between July and September 2025 – a 3.27 per cent drop from 40,162 in the same period the year before.

But, in more positive news, e-scooter usage increased from 58,681 in the same period in 2024 to 69,629 last year – a hike of 18.66 per cent.

Committee members were told improvements have been made to parking locations during that period of time. The combined e-bike and e-scooter scheme is being re-procured and is expected to come into effect from April.