More people are getting on the bus thanks to the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s cut-price fares.

Mayor Tracy Brabin introduced the £2-a-journey Mayor’s Fares last September – and so far it’s saved passengers a hefty £3.6 million on what they would have paid before.

The Mayor’s West Yorkshire scheme, which will run for three years, was quickly picked up by the Government which rolled it out nationally for three months until the end of March.

New figures have revealed almost half a million people in West Yorkshire have been getting the bus every week since the introduction of the Mayor’s Fares.

Statistics released by West Yorkshire Combined Authority show passengers across the region saved around £3.6m on what they would have been paying before the scheme was introduced.

Huddersfield Bus Station

Mayor Brabin, who uses public transport to and from her home in Slaithwaite, 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.

The scheme guarantees nobody pays more than £2 for a single journey, or £4.50 a day, for bus travel across the region.

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

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

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Mayor 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.

“I want to encourage as many people as possible in our region to use greener and more sustainable ways of getting around – we now need to see the bus operators do their bit and work hard to recruit drivers and ensure services are as reliable as they can be.

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

Mayor’s Fares was introduced on September 4 2022, capping single journeys at £2 and the MCard DaySaver at £4.50, reduced from £5.50.

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