The £2 Mayor’s Fares have got more people using buses – and the capped fares will continue in West Yorkshire until at least March 2025.

Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin introduced the £2 single fare in September 2022 and the move was followed by the Government with a national roll-out in January 2023.

Now a survey by the combined authority has found that a quarter of people said they were travelling by bus more, with two-thirds of those saying this was because of the price cap.

The Mayor’s scheme, designed to help people with the cost-of-living crisis, guarantees that nobody pays more than £2 for a single journey across West Yorkshire.

And now the £2 fare will remain until at least March 2025 after councillors on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Transport Committee voted to allocate further funding at a meeting on Monday.

Of the 1,028 respondents, over 40% said Mayor’s Fares has helped them manage the cost-of-living crisis, whilst nearly 60% agreed the scheme makes it easier for them to get around West Yorkshire.

Mayor Brabin said: “I’m delighted to see that our trailblazing Mayor’s Fares have had such a fantastic impact on bus use. This success proves that there is an appetite for well-priced bus travel in West Yorkshire.

“Our Mayor’s Fares are helping us build a better-connected region where more people use greener and more sustainable ways to travel so I’m delighted we’re able to extend into 2025.”

Half of respondents who said they used the bus more often switched from using private motorised vehicles.

And more than half of the people surveyed said Mayor’s Fares had saved them money personally, and over 60% were likely to recommend using the bus to others because of the cap.

A link to the survey results can be found online.