Leeds buses: Transport chiefs praise passenger for punctuality report

Dr Ben Hanson carefully logged bus arrival times

A Leeds commuter who compiled his own report on bus punctuality has been thanked by transport bosses.

Dr Ben Hanson relies on buses to get to and from the University of Leeds, where he is employed as a researcher.

Noticing some buses were not arriving at times stated on "live tracker" digital boards at bus stops, Dr Hanson began crunching data.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority has offered to work with him to make the system "as accurate as we can get it".

Dr Hanson found digital boards on two routes were inaccurate 80% of the time when they displayed a five-minute wait.

Accuracy rates varied according to waiting times, he explained.

Dr Hanson said: "No-one gets to the bus stop at exactly the time a bus is due to arrive - you tend to arrive a few minutes early.

"I found people were waiting longer than they needed to because buses were not arriving at the times stated on the tracker. It might only be a couple of minutes, but if you're catching two buses a day that adds up."

Dr Hanson focused his study on two routes - the Number 72, a central commuter line between Leeds and Bradford, and the Number 6 from Holt Park, which is a major student transport link.

In order to make it a fair test, Dr Hanson took samples in May and August, to allow for factors such as events and congestion.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which seeks to improve the region's transport, said the live tracker generates more than 2m messages each day, displayed at more than 2,500 on-street and bus station displays.

It added: "We and our partners recognise the importance of reliability and accurate information for people who use the bus.

"We continuously monitor its accuracy and update both the hardware and software to refine the arrival time predictions.

"We'd like to thank Ben for the summary of his analysis into these two stops, and hope that he can share his research with us to help us ensure the system is as accurate as we can get it."