West Yorkshire to bring bus services under public control

Bus services in West Yorkshire will be brought under public control, as it becomes the third major region of the north to reverse four decades of deregulation.

The region’s mayor, Tracy Brabin, said the decision was a “historic moment” that “will impact on generations to come”, adding: “Buses are vital for our communities, and franchising will help us build that better connected network that works for all.”

West Yorkshire follows Greater Manchester and Liverpool in deciding to return to a franchised system, where private operators must win contracts to run routes and timetables decided by the local authority, which also sets fares and takes revenues.

Campaigners and metro mayors have described the deregulation of buses outside London, enforced by the Thatcher government in the 1980s, as leading to a “wild west” of private operators cherrypicking profitable routes, leaving councils to subsidise essential public services.

Brabin added: “Change will not happen overnight … [but] we will crack on at pace, delivering the changes that the public want to see. We will continue to invest in new routes, improve bus stations, stops and shelters, and to improve that passenger experience.”

Under devolution, metro mayors have had the right to take buses under local control since the 2017 Bus Services Act, although the legal and political processes required remain arduous.

While Greater Manchester’s mayor, Andy Burnham, immediately said he would franchise the city’s bus network, it took until March 2021 for him to be able to officially announce the move in the face of legal challenges from firms. The first franchised routes started running in autumn last year as part of Manchester’s new Bee Network.

Brabin, who was elected in 2021 on a pledge to bring buses under public control, is also hoping to bring a wider mass transit system to Leeds and Bradford, two of the worst served cities for public transport in Europe, which will also include a tram.

Buses in West Yorkshire were ranked as the worst in England in a passenger survey published this week by the watchdog Transport Focus. Only 66% of passengers were satisfied with their last journey on Arriva buses in West Yorkshire, the lowest rating of more than 50 bus companies nationwide. The operator cited a shortage of drivers for failing services and said it now had a large number of trainees about to complete their courses.

Matthew Topham, of We Own It and the Better Buses campaign, said: “Like the sewage in our rivers and our spiralling energy bills, introducing profit-hungry shareholders to our bus network has led to daily suffering for people in West Yorkshire.

“Throwing off the dead-hand of the wild west bus market around Leeds will help add services, lower fares, and boost reliability.”

In Leeds city centre, bus users welcomed the move. John Walker, a retired civil servant from Batley, said buses had been steadily getting worse. “They’re appalling, absolutely appalling. There’s been a diminution of quality in the last few years,” he said, while waiting for his second bus to take him to a hospital appointment. “It disrupts the day and makes you have to change what you were going to do. You end up missing things.”

In a county with 2.3 million people and no mass transit system, buses were essential, said Walker. “There’s a huge north-south divide – people don’t realise how bad they are here. I’m greatly in favour of them being brought into public control. The trains should be too.”

Rachel Bennett agreed. She said Arriva services were “never on time” and “just don’t turn up”.

She gets up to eight buses a day to take her two children to school and to appointments, spending five hours travelling. “It’s really stressful because they end up being late for school,” she said. “Picking them up is the worst because you don’t like the thought of your kids waiting for you, not knowing where you are. I can’t afford to drive – I can barely afford the bus.”

It was a similar story for Sina Kidane and her friends Nicole King and Michelle Ogunsina, who live in east Leeds and go to college in the north of the city centre. “We end up being late to college because the board will say it’s coming in one minute but it actually comes in 30 minutes. They’ve recently brought out some new green buses but they’re too small so they end up full and you can’t get on,” Kidane said.

Andrew Griffiths, a musical theatre lecturer, sets off at 6.30am in order to teach at 9am, travelling just eight miles into Leeds. “Sometimes I wait longer for the bus than the journey actually takes,” he said.

“I get on the bus on the way home and they haven’t been cleaned – they’re tatty, dirty and they stink. Buses are a basic human need. They shouldn’t be run for profit.”