Mayor urges struggling bus companies to ‘hold their nerve’ and wait for £70m investment

Operators like First West Yorkshire and Arriva Yorkshire have seen usage and revenues plummet during the pandemic and they are now also struggling with inflation, rising fuel costs and driver shortages.

The Government agreed to extend a £2bn package of pandemic support, known as the Bus Recovery Grant, until March, to try and prevent operators from cutting services to save money.

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

Ms Brabin said: “We worked really hard with other mayors to persuade the Government to extend the Bus Recovery Grant, on the understanding with operators that if we did this, they wouldn’t slash routes.

“It’s really disappointing that some operators have pressed ahead with service reductions.”

Her comments came at a meeting of West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), which has found bus use is 20 per cent lower than the pre-pandemic level and around 11 per cent of the network is not financially viable.

Earlier this year, the Government promised almost £70m to fund West Yorkshire’s Bus Service Improvement Plan, which aims to transform the bus network infrastructure and make services more affordable, more frequent and more reliable.

Ms Brabin decided more than half (£37m) of that money should be used to subsidise fares, to help people struggling with the cost of living.

She launched the fare cap last month, which means passengers now pay no more than £2 for a single journey, and they can make an unlimited number of journeys for £4.50 a day by buying a DaySaver ticket on the MCard App.

But the Government said it will not hand over the money until political leaders in West Yorkshire and operators agree a plan to deliver the Bus Service Improvement Plan. WYCA has agreed to spend £3m on subsidising fares until the Government funding arrives.

“It is a really challenging picture and I really encourage the bus operators to hold their nerve until we can get the investment from our Bus Service Improvement Plan money, from Government,” said Ms Brabin

“It hasn’t yet been confirmed by the Government, we don’t know when that is going to happen, given the chaos.

“We need to make sure we still have our routes in place so we can build our transformational network.”

Analysis is underway to determine whether the fare cap has led to a significant increase in passenger numbers.

At the meeting, the Mayor's £3m Cost of Living Emergency fund was also approved.

It will provide charities and voluntary organisations with additional support to help people struggling with food insecurity, fuel poverty and mental health issues over the next 18 months.