Bus fares in West Yorkshire will be among the lowest in the country despite the Government raising a cap on fares from £2 to £3 from next year.

Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin, who first pioneered the £2 fares before the Government took it on, will hold West Yorkshire fares at £2 until March 30 2025 when it will rise to £2.50, probably until the end of the year.

Mayor Brabin is proposing a £2.50 price cap for single bus fares in the region, and a £6 cap for a DaySaver ticket for any bus, anywhere, and any number of journeys per day.

This is part of West Yorkshire’s ongoing Mayor’s Fares scheme, introduced in September 2022, to tackle the cost-of-living crisis by keeping the cost of travel as affordable as possible.

The proposals will be presented at a meeting of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority on Thursday December 12.

The Combined Authority will also continue to invest funds in protecting and enhancing bus routes and deploying police community support officers on West Yorkshire’s buses.

Mayor Brabin said: “This devolution in action – taking decisions at a regional level to benefit the people of West Yorkshire.

“More affordable and simpler fares are the only way to get more people using public transport, reducing congestion, improving air quality and tackling the climate emergency.

“Improving our bus network and bringing it back under public control is central to our plan to build a greener, better-connected region that works for all.”

The Chancellor’s recent Autumn Budget confirmed that single fares elsewhere in the country would be capped at £3 from January 2025, as part of the national bus fare cap scheme.

 

Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin holds public question time at the University of Huddersfield