'Mayor's Fares' sees 7.2m bus passengers in its first three months throughout West Yorkshire

Statistics released by West Yorkshire Combined Authority show passengers across Calderdale, Kirklees, Wakefield, Bradford and Leeds saved around £3.6m on what they would have been paying before the scheme was introduced last autumn.

Mayor’s Fares was introduced in September, 2022 and guarantees nobody pays more than £2 for a single journey, or £4.50 a day, for bus travel across the region.

Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin says the scheme was introduced to help make travel around the region easier in the face of huge increases in the cost of living over the past year.

Numbers revealed at a meeting between the region’s leaders showed passenger levels on West Yorkshire’s buses were moving ever-closer to pre-Covid pandemic levels, with a total of 7.2million journeys between October and the end of December 2022.

This shows bus usage has grown from 81 per-cent of pre-pandemic levels in May 2022, to 87 per-cent in December, showing growth since Mayor’s Fares was introduced.

Ms Brabin said: "The early success of Mayor’s Fares shows there is an appetite for well-priced bus travel in West Yorkshire. This is especially important as our communities face a cost of living crisis and I’m proud that we have been able to help people at a time when they need it most.

“We want to create a public transport renaissance in West Yorkshire, and cheaper bus travel is just the start.”