‘Hold your nerve’: West Yorkshire Mayor slams bus operators for cutting more services

Operators like First West Yorkshire and Arriva which run services through Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield, have seen usage and revenues fall during the pandemic and are nowe also struggling with inflation, rising fuel costs and driver shortages.

The government recently announced a further £130m would be poured into protecting bus services across the country until next March, following extensive lobbying from regional mayors.

However a total of 20 routes were axed earlier this month, according to the Better Buses for West Yorkshire campaign group.

Ms Brabin revealed she’d had “robust conversations” with Arriva and others and urged companies to “hold their nerve” and avoid hurting passengers further.

Speaking at a meeting of West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) meeting of regional leaders last Friday, Ms Brabin said: “There are real challenges in the bus network, but having worked really hard with other mayors to press government to extends the bus recovery grants, it’s really frustrating that some operators are pressing ahead with service reductions.

“Myself and (Bradford Council leader) Susan Hinchliffe, who chairs the (regional) transport committee have had some quite robust conversations with operators.”

West Yorkshire is due to receive a new £70m package to improve buses at some point early next year.

That however, has been earmarked for things like vehicle upgrades and subsidising fares, with leaders reluctant to spend it all on simply propping up routes that otherwise be cut.

It is not known exactly when that cash will come through, with Mayor Brabin blaming Westminster “chaos” for the lack of clarity.

She added: “The challenges are there for the bus operators and we’re not blind to those. The challenge of recruitment of drivers is very real for them.

“So I’m not undermining the challenge, but I hope bus companies share our optimism for the opportunity to enhance and expand our bus network.

“It’s a challenging picture and I really encourage bus operators to hold their nerve, until we can get the bus service improvement money from government.”

In another development, Arriva were labelled “disgraceful”, by the leader of Wakefield Council for hiking smaller fares.

Coun Denise Jeffery told the meeting she was “really angry” that the operator had upped prices by more than 50 per cent on some routes.

As part of a new ‘mayor’s fares’ initiative which started last month, all single journeys in West Yorkshire are capped at £2.

Early indications are that the scheme has boosted passenger numbers, but Councillor Jeffery slammed Arriva for taking advantage of the cap to raise much smaller fares.

She said: “The initiative has been amazing. But what’s happened in my district, particularly in the south-east and places like Ryhill and Havercoft, is instead of capping them, fares that were £1.30 were upped to £2.

“That is quite disgraceful, when you think about people trying to get into Wakefield for jobs.

“They’ve cut most of the services in our rural areas and we’ve got students going to Wakefield College who then can’t get home."

Arriva has been contacted for comment.