'Better service' promise over West Yorkshire bus franchise plan

A final decision about bringing buses back under public control will not be made until next year

Plans to bring West Yorkshire's buses back under public control have been put out to public consultation.

People are being asked whether or not they support proposals by West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin to bring in London-style franchising for buses.

Franchising would allow West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) to take control of setting fares and routes.

Simon Warburton, from WYCA, said if the plans got the go-ahead, its cost would not be funded by council tax rises.

The consultation will see a wide range of people and organisations - including bus operators, bodies representing passengers and members of the public - asked about how buses are run and what they think of the franchising idea.

It will run until the new year, with a final decision on future arrangements likely to be made next spring.

Simon Warburton said private operators would bid to run the services on behalf of WYCA

Mr Warburton, WYCA's executive director of transport, said a shake-up of services had been prompted because of concerns over a reduction in the size of the bus network and falling demand for bus travel in West Yorkshire.

"That really worries us because we've got a whole range of communities who don't have access to a car and who are really reliant on bus travel to get to school, to work and to enjoy the opportunities around West Yorkshire.

"We can offer a better service for those communities at greatest need and properly start to encourage people who have a choice to make more choices to travel by bus."

If franchising was introduced, operators would bid to run the services on behalf of the authority, but they would not dictate routes or fares, Mr Warburton said.

"It's a complicated bus system we've ended up with. There are lots of different tickets available to travel and that's confusing to know whether people are getting the best value when they're travelling around," he said.

"Also, if they've got challenges on the system then they don't know the best contact and we want to take all that confusion away."

In 2017, the Bus Services Act gave city regions the power to introduce bus franchising, with Greater Manchester last month becoming the first area to implement it.

If bus franchising was agreed for West Yorkshire, it would not take effect until 2027 at the earliest.

Analysis by Spencer Stokes, BBC Look North Transport Correspondent

The plan to bring buses in West Yorkshire under public control would be the biggest change to the way services are run since the mid-1980s.

Since 1986, bus services in England - but not London - have been deregulated. This means buses are mainly run by private bus companies such as First Group, Arriva and TransDev.

They have control over their routes, timetables, ticket options, fares and bus frequency.

In most cases, the private operators also receive the revenue from fares, retain the profits and can choose to reinvest money in running buses as they see fit.

Public control of the bus network would see West Yorkshire Combined Authority take control of routes, frequency, fares and overall standards of the region's buses, and it would then contract private bus operators to run these on its behalf.

A single bus "brand" would also be created to help simplify the system.

Transferring control to the combined authority would also see it take the financial risk.

Critics of the plan say it could be forced to turn to taxpayers to raise additional revenue to maintain uneconomic services.

Mr Warburton said if franchising was adopted, West Yorkshire Combined Authority would have financial responsibility for running the network, but it would not have an impact on council tax.

"We've set out how we would go about paying for any transitional costs and none of those would land themselves on council tax," he said.

"We've got provision in devolution funds and capital funds to enable us to make that transition."

Another option being mooted in the consultation is a closer partnership between the authority and bus operators.

But Mr Warburton said franchising gave more certainty over how WYCA could "safeguard the network in the future".

Graham Vidler, chief executive of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, which represents bus companies in West Yorkshire, said either option would be welcome.

"The mayor has set out a really bold vision to transform bus services in the city region through, for example, providing more buses, going to more places, moving more quickly and with simpler fares.

"That's a great set of objectives which all of us in the industry buy into."

Currently, buses are mainly run by private bus companies such as First Group, Arriva and TransDev

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