\n But publicly-controlled bus routes, known as the Weaver Network, could be introduced in Ilkley and parts of West Leeds in 2027.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Thursday, members of West Yorkshire Combined Authority voted to support plans to move forward with franchising the region’s bus services \u2013 a move that will give the Authority a say over where and when buses run.\n<\/p>\n
\n It will see bus companies bid for contracts to run services in various different areas.\n<\/p>\n
\n A report to the committee revealed that West Yorkshire would be divided into nine zones, with different \u201crounds\u201d of franchising.\n<\/p>\n
\n The first round \u2013 and the first areas to get franchised buses, will be the Heavy Woolen area, Kirklees and West Leeds\/Ilkley.\n<\/p>\n
\n The second round will include Five Towns, the remainder of Leeds and Wakefield.\n<\/p>\n
\n The final round will include Bradford, Calderdale and Keighley.\n<\/p>\n
\n Members heard that as part of the franchising preparations, the authority was in negotiations with bus companies to purchase various depots across the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n If these negotiations fail, the Authority could force the sale of the depots through compulsory purchase orders.\n<\/p>\n
\n A report to members said: \u201cAs depots are an illiquid and fixed asset which, unlike fleet, cannot be moved or developed easily, a lack of access to depot facilities could mean that operators are unable to enter or compete in the market.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is particularly the case for larger contracts, if operators do not have access to depots, and potentially hinders the growth ambitions for many Small and Medium-size Operators. The Combined Authority\u2019s proposed Depot Strategy therefore assumes the acquisition of a strategically located depot in each Zone for contracts exceeding a certain level of Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) to remove barriers to entry and increase competition.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n At the meeting Paul Matthews, Director of Bus Franchising, said: \u201cGetting to this stage has been very time consuming.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n He said the Authority had learned lessons from other Councils, including Manchester, that had gone down the franchising route.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added; \u201cWe\u2019ve been in discussions with the owners of existing depots \u2013 having access to depots is critical.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cTo mitigate the risk of non-delivery we are looking at compulsory purchase powers in parallel to commercial negotiations.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n After the meeting Bradford Council Leader and chair of the CA\u2019s Transport Committee Susan Hinchcliffe said: \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\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cA franchised network will allow us to run buses in the interests of the people who use them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But publicly-controlled bus routes, known as the Weaver Network, could be introduced in Ilkley and parts of West…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-307624","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\/114950111935174461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307624","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=307624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}