Over the past 12 months, I am proud to report that Metro has seen successes in both bus and rail.
Following its extremely promising start, numbers of people using our Leeds FreeCityBus service continued to grow, reaching one million by October, within nine months of its introduction. Based upon this success we launched the Huddersfield FreeTownBus in November and it is proving extremely popular.
Schools Minister Lord Adonis came to meet My bus yellow school bus pupils in Morley and told me that Metro should be proud of what it has achieved through the scheme. Shadow Transport and Education Ministers, Chris Grayling and David Willetts also visited the scheme and went away impressed.
In December I was encouraged by proposals in Sir Rod Eddington’s report on the UK transport network, and the Government’s Putting Passengers First report on the bus industry. Sir Rod recommended bus franchising where it can offer high value for money, and changes in legislation proposed in Putting Passengers First could give Metro new opportunities to work in partnership with the bus operators to ensure reasonable fares, service frequencies and simple ticketing schemes that would make buses more attractive, affordable and reliable.
These proposals were supported in Sir Michael Lyons’ March report into Local Government which recommended that local authorities should be given powers to regulate bus services as soon as practicable.
On the rail network, we were able to introduce 12 new carriages to provide extra peak-time capacity, through a £20m partnership with Yorkshire Forward and Northern Rail. And at the end of March we were able to announce that we had found a way to retain the ‘threatened’ fourth cars on the Airedale and Wharfedale lines’ Class 333 trains.
TransPennine passengers benefited from the introduction of a fleet of new Class 185 trains, and West Yorkshire passengers using Class 155 and 321 trains will enjoy the improved comfort of their recent refurbishment.
Councillor Stanley King
Chairman
Metro
