West Yorkshire’s mayor must fix bus services – Yorkshire Post Letters

WEST Yorkshire was once proud of its public transport system.

There were well served bus routes throughout the day and evening; and bus fares were modest, though never as cheap as at one time in South 
Yorkshire.

As part of the creation of West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council in 1973, the former municipal bus services in the county area were amalgamated.

However, in the late 1980s, the County Council was forced to privatise its municipal company, Yorkshire Rider, by the Tory government under Margaret Thatcher. Yorkshire Rider eventually became part of First Bus.

Since the late 1980s the bus services in West Yorkshire have steadily reduced and bus fares have risen consistently in excess of general inflation.

There is no longer a semblance of an “integrated transport network”.

It is painfully clear to the bus passengers of West Yorkshire that privatisation does not work for the passengers, and that public transport should be in public ownership.

In May 2021, we will have the opportunity to elect a West Yorkshire Mayor as a result of the devolution deal unveiled in the Budget in March.

Part of the deal (the devolution deal) creating the position of elected mayor is for government money to be “devolved” to invest in public transport, through 
the so-called Transforming 
Cities Fund (I’m not sure if people in Brighouse, or Bingley, or Otley, or Batley or Hemsworth think they are part of a city, but…)

The new West Yorkshire Mayor should recognise that this money will be most efficiently spent if spent on publicly-owned public transport.

One of their first priorities must therefore be to consult the five West Yorkshire council districts whether there should be one municipal bus company for the whole of West Yorkshire, or separate municipal bus companies for each council district.

The mayor should then lobby the Government for immediate funding, and practical support, to enable this (or these) municipal bus company or companies to be set up.

Whatever model is agreed, it is essential that as well as councillors, there should be representatives of both the workers and the passengers 
on the boards of the bus company.

I hope that the new West Yorkshire Mayor can fix the bus service, on the basis that public transport should be in public ownership.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson