{"id":295956,"date":"2025-07-27T13:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T13:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295956\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T13:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T13:24:13","slug":"west-leeds-set-to-pilot-publicly-controlled-bus-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295956\/","title":{"rendered":"West Leeds set to pilot publicly controlled bus services"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Baron<\/strong><\/p>\n

West Leeds is likely to be one of two areas to pilot bus franchising from 2027, West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has said.<\/p>\n

Taking public control of buses, as part of the Weaver Network, will allow the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (CA) to set bus routes, frequencies and fares for the benefit of passengers across the region.<\/p>\n

Details of how contracts will be awarded for running buses, which areas will see the first franchised services, and plans to purchase bus depots were discussed at a meeting of the CA last week.<\/p>\n

The support from West Yorkshire\u2019s council leaders comes ahead of the launch of the first round of contract procurement in October, expected to cover West Leeds and Kirklees. <\/p>\n

\"\"Mayor Tracy Brabin<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin said: \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic to see the progress we\u2019re making to take back control of our region\u2019s buses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFranchising will be a vital part of our Weaver Network which will offer\u00a0seamless travel for passengers across\u00a0bus, train, tram and\u00a0walking and cycling routes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still plenty to do, but we are well on our way to launching the first franchised bus services by 2027, and a wholly publicly-run network the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n

When awarding bus service contracts, West Yorkshire will be split into nine zones. Kirklees and west Leeds are likely to have\u00a0the first franchised services, expected to start running in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bus companies will be able to bid for both large and small contract bundles, aimed at encouraging competition within the sector and allowing smaller operators to grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leader of Bradford Council and chair of the CA\u2019s Transport Committee Susan Hinchcliffe said:\u00a0\u201cFor too long, bus passengers in West Yorkshire have suffered from unreliable services and cancellations \u2013 and that is just for the routes that haven\u2019t been cut completely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA franchised network will allow us to run buses in the interests of the people who use them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to give the public a clear picture of how franchising will work,\u00a0at the same time as giving\u00a0assurances to us as CA members\u00a0and helping to\u00a0build excitement about the future of bus travel for our region.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper also contains details on how the CA may choose to use compulsory purchase powers if necessary to secure control of key bus depots in the region over the coming years.<\/p>\n

For more information, read the papers here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sponsored content<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>www.bramleybaths.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By John Baron West Leeds is likely to be one of two areas to pilot bus franchising from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-295956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114925422143788098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}