Within nine months of its late January launch, the MetroConnect Leeds FreeCityBus which links the city’s rail and bus stations, General Infirmary, Universities, Park Lane College, and shopping, business and cultural districts had carried one million passengers.
In the light of this success, a Huddersfield FreeTownBus was introduced in November and is already exceeding expectations, and a Wakefield FreeCityBus is being launched in April 2007.
Since the start of April, Metro has administered free local bus travel for Senior Permit and Disabled Permit holders. Half a million flyers, 1/4 million leaflets and hundreds of posters were distributed to encourage as many people as possible to take up their entitlement to free bus travel.
Research is now underway ahead of the Government’s introduction of a national free bus travel scheme for senior and disabled people in April 2008.
In November Metro, First and Kirklees Council launched the Holmfirth Connection, making it easier to travel from the Holme Valley to Leeds, Manchester and Dewsbury.
With the Holmfirth Connection, people wanting to connect at Huddersfield train station with TransPennine Express train services to Manchester, Leeds and Dewsbury, combined bus and train tickets are available from the bus driver on services 309 to 316, which run from Holmfirth to Huddersfield. These services now run via St George's Square, for easier connection with train services and there are new late-night journeys at midnight.
In December Metro welcomed proposals published in the Government’s Putting Passengers First report, that would enable it to work with bus operators to agree service frequencies and reasonable fares, simple ticketing schemes, integration between bus and rail, fewer buses on routes where there are too many services and more where services are lacking. Long-term planning and partnerships envisaged in the Department for Transport report are seen by Metro as vital in attracting bus services which meet people’s needs, end the current decline and start achieving growth across the network.
