As expected, Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin has decided that franchising will be introduced to bus services in the region.
Ms Brabin’s decision was announced as scheduled on 14 March. She has long favoured reregulation as the avenue for service reform. Franchising will see services, timetables, fares and overall standards for buses set by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), and operators will tender for franchise service contracts of varying sizes.
A group of operators in West Yorkshire had made the case for an Enhanced Partnership Plus approach as an alternative, but Ms Brabin’s decision has long looked inevitable. It follows the same choice in Greater Manchester – where franchised services are already rolling out – and in the Liverpool City Region.
WYCA says that franchised services will be introduced in phases, with the first of those – in parts of Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield – starting from March 2027. Work under the West Yorkshire Bus Service Improvement Plan will continue in the meantime.
Speaking about her decision to enact bus franchising, Ms Brabin says: “I am delighted to announce that we are taking back control of our buses in West Yorkshire, empowering the public to hold me to account for better services.
“For too long, buses have been run in the interests of private companies, not passengers. Franchising will help us [to] build a better-connected bus network that works for all, not just company shareholders.
“Be we know that change will not happen overnight. The hard work we have been doing to improve the bus network continues while we work at pace to bring this new way of running buses to our 2.4 million residents.”
The Combined Authority adds that the deregulated bus landscape in West Yorkshire has seen falling patronage and increasing public financial support.
WYCA has already laid out that transition and transition management costs for franchising will be over £20 million, and that depot and fleet investment of above £335 million will be necessary over 15 years for a combination of bringing those assets into its ownership, and the deployment of more than 850 zero-emission buses.
The Combined Authority says that bus services in the region “remain too infrequent and unreliable to meet passengers’ needs,” highlighting that West Yorkshire was ranked lowest for overall customer satisfaction in the Your Bus Journey survey results published by Transport Focus the day before Ms Brabin’s decision was revealed.
