Transport Committee - Wednesday 23 July 2025, 3:30pm - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Transport Committee
Wednesday, 23rd July 2025 at 3:30pm 

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  1. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  2. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  3. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  4. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  5. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  6. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  7. Rotimi Olorunfemi Committee Services Officer
  8. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  9. Cllr Matthew Morley
  10. Adele Rae
  11. Cllr Scott Haslam
  12. Cllr Tony Wallis
  13. Cllr Abdul Hannan
  14. Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council
  15. Fatima Khan-Shah (Inclusivity Champion)
  16. Richard Hoare
  17. Megan Hope
  18. John Roxburgh
  19. John Roxburgh
  20. Henri Rohard Transdev
  21. Toby Patrick-Bailey
  22. Rachel Marsden
  23. Graham Meiklejohn
  24. Ms. Natalie Sykes (Private Sector Representative)
  25. Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council
  26. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  27. Cllr Amjad Zaman
  28. Cllr Caroline Firth
  29. Cllr Chris Steele, Bradford Council
  30. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  31. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  32. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  33. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  34. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  35. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  36. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Rotimi Olorunfemi Committee Services Officer
  2. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
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  1. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  3. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  2. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  5. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  6. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  7. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  8. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  9. Cllr Chris Steele, Bradford Council
  10. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  11. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  13. Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council
  14. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  15. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  16. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  17. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  18. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  19. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  20. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  21. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  22. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  23. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  24. Cllr Matthew Morley
  25. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  26. Cllr Caroline Firth
  27. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  28. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  29. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  30. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  31. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  32. John Roxburgh
  33. Megan Hope
  34. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  35. Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council
  36. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  37. Fatima Khan-Shah (Inclusivity Champion)
  38. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  39. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  40. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  41. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  42. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  43. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  44. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  45. Cllr Chris Steele, Bradford Council
  46. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  47. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  48. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  49. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  50. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  51. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  52. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  53. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  54. Richard Hoare
  55. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  56. John Roxburgh
  57. Megan Hope
  58. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  59. Richard Hoare
  60. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  61. Richard Hoare
  62. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  63. John Roxburgh
  64. Megan Hope
  65. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  66. Henri Rohard Transdev
  67. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  68. Cllr Caroline Firth
  69. Henri Rohard Transdev
  70. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  71. Cllr Amjad Zaman
  72. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
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  1. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  5. Cllr Matthew Morley
  6. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  7. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  8. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  9. Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council
  10. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  11. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  12. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  13. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  14. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  15. Toby Patrick-Bailey
  16. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  17. Toby Patrick-Bailey
  18. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  19. Toby Patrick-Bailey
  20. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  21. Graham Meiklejohn
  22. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
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  1. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  3. Cllr Caroline Firth
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
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  1. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  3. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  5. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  6. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  7. Cllr Chris Steele, Bradford Council
  8. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  9. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  10. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  11. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
Share this agenda point
  1. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council)
  3. Webcast Finished

Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:00:00
a make -up of the committee actually isn't it? So I think it's probably good for us just to do around the table at who we are
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:00:09
where we come from if that's all right. Starting myself I'm Susan Hinchcliffe
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:00:13
I'm leader of Bradford and chair of West Shorks Transport. Peter who are you?
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:00:19
I'm council Peter Carlisle I'm here as the deputy chair of transport with responsibility for bus and active travel.
And then we also have councillor Eric Firth.
Cllr Eric Firth (Kirklees Council) - 0:00:32
My name is Eric Firth, I'm deputy chair of the Transport Committee with Responsibilities
for Rail.
Thank you very much.
And then we'll go around the table and start with Rotimi.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:00:43
Rotimi Olorunfemi - 0:00:46
Hi everyone, my name is Rotimi, I'm the Committee Service Officer for this committee.
Thank you.
Miles Larington, Committee Services Officer.
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 0:00:54
Councillor MURPHY, Deputy Leader Kirkley, he's a Transport Portfolio Holder.
Cllr Matthew Morley - 0:00:58
Councillor Matthew Morley, a Cabinet Member for Planning and Airways at Wakefield Council.
Adele Rae - 0:01:05
Councillor Adele Rayfe from Leeds, both Bramley and Stoningly Ward.
Cllr Scott Haslam - 0:01:11
Councillor Scott Haslam from Featherstone Ward in Wakefield.
Good afternoon, Councillor Tony Wallace from Wakefield Council.
Cllr Tony Wallis - 0:01:19
Cllr Abdul Hannan - 0:01:23
Good afternoon, everybody. Councillor Abdul Hanan from Headingley High Park in Leeds.
Councillor Andrea Pinnock -Kirklees from Cliqui.
Cllr Andrew Pinnock - 0:01:33
Fatima Khan-Shah (Inclusivity Champion) - 0:01:37
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Fatima Kansha and I am the West Yorkshire Inclusivity
Champion, which is a role advising the mayor on equity and inclusion and is shared with
health and care system.
Richard Hoare - 0:01:49
Megan Hope - 0:01:57
John Roxburgh - 0:02:05
John Roxburgh - 0:02:12
Henri Rohard Transdev - 0:02:25
Hi, I'm Terry Patrick Bailey, Roo Programme Director Network Rail.
Toby Patrick-Bailey - 0:02:32
Good afternoon everybody, Darren Allsop, Stakeholder Manager at Northern Trains.
Hi everyone, Rachel Marston, Stakeholder and Development Manager from Transatlantic Express.
Rachel Marsden - 0:02:40
Graham Meiklejohn - 0:02:43
Good afternoon, Graham, you could John head of regional development stakeholders communities that transparent and express
Ms. Natalie Sykes (Private Sector Representative) - 0:02:50
Afternoon all nastily Sykes private sector member representing the West Yorkshire Business Board
Cllr Neil Buckley - 0:03:01
Hello, I'm council Neil Buckley from Woodley Ward in Leeds
Cllr Debbie Davies - 0:03:09
Hi Councillor Debbie Davis from Bradford Council, Bailton Ward. Thank you.
Cllr Amjad Zaman - 0:03:15
Good afternoon Councillor, I'm Justin Mound, Keaty Central Ward, representing Bradford
District Council. Good afternoon everyone.
Councillor Matthew McLachlan from the Corn Valley Ward in Kirklees. I'm also the Transport
Engagement Lead for Kirklees. Hi, I'm Caroline Firth. I'm a District Councillor
Cllr Caroline Firth - 0:03:29
in Bradford and Transport Engagement League for Bradford Council as well.
Good afternoon everyone, I'm Councillor Chris Steele from Wolfendale World in Bradford.
Chris Steele - 0:03:41
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:03:45
I'm Councillor Sarah Courtney, I'm lead member for Regeneration and Transport, Colesdale Council.
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:03:49
Hello everybody, I'm Helen Elton, I'm head of Transport Policy at the Command Authority.
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:03:55
I'm Dave Huskins, Strategic Head of Major Projects at West Yorkshire Command Authority.
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:04:00
I can hear everyone, Tim Taylor, Director of Transport Services here at the Command Authority.
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:04:04
And I'm Simon Warburton, Executive Director for Transport.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:04:10
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:04:15
Lovely, thank you very much. So we're quite an array of people here this morning, including the operators for bus and rail, so we've a lot to get through. Have we got any apologies?

1 Apologies for Absence

Rotimi Olorunfemi - 0:04:25
Yes, we have apologies from councillors Alex Rocha, Howard Blackbird, Colin Hutchinson,
Lisa Martin, Tony Margaret, Jonathan Pryor and Kate Ravidius.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:04:37
So declarations of disclosure of peculiar interests.
Has anyone got any interest to declare?
No, not seeing any.
Exempt information there is no exempt information today as far as I'm aware and the agenda

3 Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

4 Minutes of the meeting of the Transport Committee held on 16 April 2025

So no exclusion the person public minutes of the last meeting a transport committee on the 16th of April
Not everybody of course was here because it was a an old committee with a new committee
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:05:02
but for those of you were is there anything in there that you've
issue with or are we happy to pass that as a correct record of that meeting I
See nods, so I'm happy to propose that can I see a seconder? That's the car low all those in favour, please show
Thank you very much, that is carried. So moving on to the governance arrangements

5 Governance Arrangements

were passed the last combined authority meeting. Obviously you should see your
name in this paper somewhere, otherwise you're in the wrong meeting. But
hopefully it's quite straightforward.
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:05:38
No simply that chair, the combined authority annual meeting was on the 19th
of June and at that meeting the terms of reference and committee membership set
out in appendix one and appendix two accordingly were approved and therefore
we are requesting that the Transport Committee notes those arrangements as
agreed at the annual meeting. Thank you very much can I see all those in favour
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:06:07
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:06:12
please show. Thank you very much. So moving on to substantive items obviously

6 Transport Operations - Bus

around bus and rail today really. So the first item is about transport operations
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:06:19
and bus. There's a lot of data in there. Tim do you want to give us some opening
remarks before we move to questions and the operators? Yes thank you chair and I
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:06:26
thought I'd just take you through a couple of the highlights if that's okay
in terms of some of the key findings in the report. I thought it might be
useful to start in terms of passenger trends and transport information. Members
will note in the paper that we have continued to see stagnation and in some
areas decline in terms of patronage over the most recent period and that's
borne out in both the numbers but also it's set out in 3 .6 as more of a national
trend and this is being seen again across the country substantially as well.
You'll note that we have seen some variations as well set out in 3 .4 by
districts, so not all of that decline is being seen equally across the region.
And also in 3 .3 you'll see that that is also varying by the cohort types of passengers
that are seeing levels of decline vary.
Moving on, I thought it might be useful to pull out some of the satisfaction information.
So for members' awareness, if you weren't aware, the Combined Authority undertakes an
annual Perceptions of Public Transport survey process, and we've had the most recent set
of those results published lately.
I think what it does is bear out and reflect
the continued importance that people
see in local bus services.
So in 3 .11, the increasing importance
by which people see bus services, and also generally
the levels of satisfaction, which are broadly
consistent with prior years.
No great surprise.
Affordability through that survey process
is equally important for members of the public.
And again, you'll see set out in 3 .11
those scores have steadily increased over years, which is reassuring to see.
But also in doing so probably makes reflection to and should be recognising of the work that
we've done in terms of Mayor's Fairs activity for the last few years.
Moving forward you will also see in that survey some satisfaction survey results around buying
tickets and again reassuring that people are continuing to see an increase year on year
in the satisfaction of purchasing tickets.
We believe that that is at least in part attributable to developments that we've made on the MCARD app in West Yorkshire over recent years, but also the increase in terms of the prevalence of contacts payments for bus operators and also in terms of the role after the Mayor's Fair, again in terms of simplification of that approach.
Members probably should also note under personal safety there's some interesting
information in respect of the perception of safety that people see in terms of
the use of the network more generally and there's some some clear differences
between the perception of safety between daytime and nighttime as well.
Moving a bit further on in terms of the paper, members will see that we have
information in respect of our approach to management of timetables. I recognise
that this is an area that members are clearly both interested in and frequently are in contact
with us about.
We have put in place for this year now a set of key performance indicators that you will
see at the top of page 22, which set out both our ambitions and our commitments to maintaining
timely information and distribution of timetables across the network.
Similarly, and linked to that, we have continued commitments in terms of rolling out real -time
information so again you'll see on 322 information about roll out of a further
200 real -time units across the region again very much linked to our ambitions
and commitment to providing timely and good quality information to passengers.
Again moving forward you will see information around mayor's fairs so
again for members are not aware we have the scheme in existence now through can
confirm through till the end of December this year as part of the comprehensive
The spending review in recent times has been coming from DFT to extend the national scheme
through to March of 2027 and as a combined authority we are working on what our response
to that is in terms of any potential further continuation of our scheme.
None of you can equally have hopefully avoided to notice the launch of the Weaver network
brand and again the paper just gives a brief bit of information around both the launch
of that process but also some of the public facing information that we're now starting
to provide and a commitment to take to the combined authority later this year, a plan
which describes how we will start to implement that brand across our network and in time.
In terms of passenger engagement, moving on to page 29, again just a brief update here,
We continue with support from operations, which we're grateful. Can you continue to do various?
engagements with members of public be that the gate line trial we're doing on the railway for
NCTS pass holders
The events that we've done in Bradford, which have seen
over 500 engagements in terms of healthy and disabled passengers in terms of encouraging them back onto the general network and all those things are
are important to us in terms of getting people back into both Bathurst City Centre and onto the network more generally as well.
Last but not least and again, again, no great surprise an area of interest in terms of network performance. You'll see in the 3 .55
information about our latest performance on punctuality and reliability. I think it's reassuring that
overall levels of service cancelations to our reliability level across the total network is now under 2 % which is which is reassuring.
By no means should we be complacent that that is the case, but again it's an area that we'll continue to focus on.
And you will see in Appendix 2 some further information in terms of service specific performance that we brought last time
and an evolution of the reporting information that we provide through that.
Last but not least, I shall quickly just draw our attention to some service change activities.
So again we've made some service changes across the network, both in terms of park and ride,
but also more general network changes as well set out in 3 .60 to 3 .66.
And I think for us in particular as a command authority,
making sure we strike the balance of the use of our bus service improvement plan,
funding both to enhance the network and protect the network
as part of our commitments towards bus franchising remains unchanged.
And finally, a brief explanation at the back of the paper,
which I don't intend to dwell on,
but some further information around some of the investments we're making
across our estates and our assets in terms of updating the likes of Dewsby
Bradford Leeds and Hothersfield as well.
Oh and Heckman DYkes as well of course.
So chair I shall stop there but happy to invite questions on any of the detail in the paper.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:13:08
There is a lot of data there.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:13:09
I know councillors will have questions.
We're also grateful that we have Areeva, Firstbus and Transtev here.
So thank you very much to the bus operators coming here.
So we'll open to questions first and then perhaps afterwards if the operators want to sort of conclude any closing remarks
That'd be really helpful. So can I see indications councillor crook?
councillor McLaughlin councillor Buckley
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:13:31
Thanks very much. I just wanted to ask a question really about the loss of patronage that we're saying
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 0:13:39
So three percent loss of patronage and which is concerning and I realise this was part of our modelling part of the justification for the positive
I wanted to know, and there's a corresponding reduction in routes of 3 % as well, so I wanted
to know, and I'm not sure if this is a question for officers or for operators, if there's
anything more we can do to stop the loss of service or loss of service frequency as it
often is, and also whether it's in line with the modelling that we had as we moved towards
franchising, because there had been an expectation in loss, but obviously if there's a loss of
Service and a loss of patronage beyond our expectation that might have impact on our ability to invest in the early stages of our new franchise
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:14:17
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:14:19
I'll move first of all to cancel mclaughlin and castle Buckley. They will take me three thing at my
Thank you. Cheque. Yeah a couple points for me the first
I'd like to sort of ask both operators and officers what work is being done to improve the ghost bus problem
And we're getting all this new real -time information input in it bus stops, which is brilliant
But are we any closer to sorting out the technical?
Chris Steele - 0:14:40
Problems that mean that people are expecting busses that then don't arrive and the second point on the mayor's face
Just to ask
Under under the previous government. It was the case that because our scheme was older than their scheme
Cllr Debbie Davies - 0:14:52
They would not subsidise our affairs in the same way
They were subsidising the rest of the national affairs and we were having to make up the difference from our basic funding
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:15:02
Is that still the case or has a change of government brought change of policy?
Thank you.
And Councillor Bookley?
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:15:09
Yes, thank you.
Cllr Neil Buckley - 0:15:20
I also wanted to mention the paternity situation, in particular the slightly alarming figure
about the drop in passenger journeys.
I think that's on page 17 to 18, which indicates a 29 % decline over this period.
And in addition to that, I wanted to bring up something which is referred to on pages
20 and 23 and 24, which is this audio machine at bus stops.
I think it's called the E Ink machine.
Now I've got two or three questions here Chairman, do you want me to ask them now?
Okay. I've got some figures here about the the number of machines which we have
and I just wondered whether it was the intention to expand this across as many
bus stops as possible in the region. Is that the intention? And in terms of
how often are these checked?
Because I had a resident who came to me
and said that she's not particularly old,
but she's losing a sight,
which is very distressing for her, very depressing.
But she's getting about as much as she possibly can
using these machines in particular.
But she said that she came across nine machines
which weren't working.
So that's another question.
And incidentally, the machine on East Parade in Leeds, just up here, when I walked past
it the other week, on a very quiet morning actually, I pressed the button and you couldn't
hear the message.
You could hear it working, but you couldn't hear the message because of the ambient noise,
which was relatively low.
And then finally, I have some figures here which I just jotted down and they'll be wrong,
but it gives the gist of it, about machines per ward.
And I just assumed that is it the case that there are more machines in more heavily used
bus routes?
For instance, there are 36 in Middleton, 42 in Holbeck, 45 in Morley, but only 11 in Kirkstall,
3 in Wortley and 2 in Allwoodley. So if I can have some information there please. Thank you.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:17:56
Thank you. So I'll go to Tim on those. There's quite a few there, Tim, if you can be.
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:18:01
Yes, happy chair to take those in turn, thank you.
So in terms of, Councillor Cook, your first question around patronage and network decline,
I think in answer to your question, we are doing the things that we think we can within
our control, so both continued use of bus service improvement plan funding to protect
and enhance the network, so superbus schemes, frequency enhancement or frequency protection.
Things like Mayor's Fairs completely help as well in terms of keeping fares lower than
they would otherwise be through a commercial network.
But as I said in my remarks, this is by no means us being complacent in terms of the
things that we need to do to intervene on the network, but particularly to protect that
network in terms of its baseline expectations through to bus franchising starting in March
April 2027.
We still have more B -CIP funding to spend.
We know we are likely to get an equivalent of B -CIP in 2627 too and we will need to take
decisions in due course as to the relative balance of network protection versus enhancement
for that.
Clearly what we can't do is tell operators what to do with their commercial network in
that intervening period and we have to react to those changes as they land.
But I think making sure that we do strike that balance but maintaining a network that
then can operate in a franchised environment will be key.
So I think that's a summary answer but that manifests itself clearly quite differently
in different parts of the network as well.
And again, happy to have conversations individually
with members outside of this committee chair
if they want to talk about local specifics as well.
Turning to your question, Councillor McLachlan,
goes to the problems.
We have commitments from operators.
I may ask them to comment on what they're doing
because largely it is within their control
to manage that issue.
But again, we have commitments to solve that
and it's a conversation that's been brought up
at Bus Alliance on more than one occasion
to my recollection. On Mayors' Fairs, so you were right because our scheme started
ahead of the National Scheme. The original requirement from the Department of
Transport was that we fully fund the cost of the reimbursement to bus
operators for the subsidised tickets that we had. We have now managed to get
DFT to allow West Yorkshire operators to join the National Scheme which is great news. So we have
that arrangement in place with the operators in the room.
We continue to still add subsidy to that because we are subsidising it below the national fare
cap and we also have our scheme extended to the day saver which is not a clear part of
the national scheme, they only cap singles.
So we have reduced our exposure to the cost through that, it hasn't eliminated it but
it's certainly helped.
Last but not least, Councillor Buckley, so your series of questions.
The 29 % that you make reference to is since 2010 if memory serves me right in the paper.
So again, no cause for complacency.
That is a significant drop, but a drop that is consistent nationally on bus patronage.
And again, probably no great surprise as to why we are looking and pursuing franchising
as an alternative operating model to run busses to try and both arrest and reverse that decline.
On e -ink, so the units that are in place at the moment are just clearly a trial basis.
We don't have any predetermined views as to how many stocks that we intend to roll them
out to, but again happy to have conversations with any war members if they would like to
see some of those trial units in their area because clearly they are beneficial in terms
of how they operate and the information that they provide, but making sure that information
is both up to date and useful.
And then we'll no doubt come to a view in due course as part of the bus franchising process on how many units we intend to roll out.
Eventually we are doing a piece of work in terms of what we call our customer proposition.
So this is setting out our minimum customer service standards on a franchise network and what that means in terms of customer service offer,
both in terms of things like timetable information but also more generally for contact centre information, complaints, lost property and so forth as well.
You are correct in respect of some of the background noise issues, so at Leeds City Centre it's an own issue.
We've had conversations with the Pocklington Trust on this particular point, striking a balance between getting the volume appropriate for people who are partially sighted and have visual impairment issues, but not having them so alive that they are a problem for the wider general public.
if there are issues you know technical otherwise again I'd encourage members to
to let me know let the combined authority know and we'll go look at
individual units where needed and equally I think your assumption on them
being more prevalent in more heavily used bus routes is correct we have
design standards and minimum thresholds in terms of the use of those real -time
units again probably not for a detailed discussion here chair if you're okay
with that but again happy to pick up specific points if there are places that
people feel they might be useful but might just fall below that threshold.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:23:03
I think it might be useful that e -ink thing if we could have perhaps some
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:23:07
perhaps tell us when the day is you're gonna look at it properly and then let's
make a reasonable decision based on the evidence so we can just have that sort
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:23:12
of factored in I think probably with Peter leading on that that'd be really
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:23:15
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:23:18
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:23:19
helpful. Right I've got Councillor Courtney and
Councillor Morley and Councillor Ferg. Thank you chair. I've got two sort of broad areas.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:23:32
One is around passenger trends and the other is about passenger information.
Passenger trends it'll come as no surprise to people who know me on this
committee that I'm not very happy around some of the bus services in the
bits of Calderdale and the reduction so I'm just looking at so
and I think that we need to really think about how we can
help. All of us want there to not be a reduction in
patronage and reducing services just feels like completely the
wrong way to do that. And especially sort of heading in
towards franchising, it's really important for us all to
have that kind of a broad perspective.
have good services. Now in 3 .61 and 3 .62, we've had reductions in the Upper Valley of
the 591 service. I really appreciate that the combined authority have stepped in to
support the evening weekend services but it's been noted in the report that the service
between Halifax and Burnley has been reduced to an hourly service along with the recent
reduction, relatively recent reduction between Rochdale and Halifax. These are three big
towns, as Rochdale, Burnie and Halifax, where the bus services have just been really greatly
reduced and that's not working for the people who need to use those services to access work,
training, education, health services, as well as leisure and cultural purposes.
And in fact I've received a petition with over 2 ,000 signatures from people who live
in the Upper Calder Valley and that area that I've been asked to pass on to first, so I
if you want me to pass that on to you, just really saying that they wouldn't please stop
the planned reduction of bus services to one an hour between Burnie and Halifax and to
reinstate the Rochdale Halifax to two busses an hour because people are just not able,
it's just not working, people can't rely on an hourly bus service to get to work, get
to hospital appointments, get to education and the like. So that's my first point, it's
just basically a plea to ask you to really reconsider that.
And I know you're citing commercial services,
commercial reasons, and I know that that's all been,
and I know you have a duty to your shareholders
and all of that sort of stuff.
But actually, the more you reduce them,
the more the service goes down.
And I just think, so that's the first one.
So, sorry to bang on about that,
but I've got to speak up on behalf of people in Calderdale.
The second one is just around,
There's a real issue around passenger transport information. This came up at our
recent Talking Transport Forum in in Colvedale about the travel information
not being accurate regarding late running busses cancelations and just
hoping that in when we come to the widget can we see improvements in this
even in the pre -franchising context. The timetable of the roadside timetables
there's been a real problem with those not always being updated in time after service
changes have been taking place. And we know that the Combined Authority are attempting
to resolve a resourcing problem but it really does cause issue for people. And then just
something along the branding for the Weaver network and the bus stops and just wanting
to make sure that can we have a confirmation that when if new bus
shelters and bus stop improvements are being implemented that they're going to
go straight in in the new Weaver livery rather than having going in in the old
metro one and then having to be replaced. So sorry for all the questions, well not
really, that's why I'm here. Thank you. Thanks, Councillor Conlon. Councillor Morley.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:27:41
Cllr Matthew Morley - 0:27:44
Thank you chair. It's really pleasing for me to read a report. It's not often you get
this and mention the Wakefield district and new bus services. So I really do thank you
for what you're doing. We have obviously had devastating and massive cuts across the Wakefield
district. So I do thank you for the work and support you've given us in the Wakefield district
because I really do not know where we'll be without your support on this. So it's just
Really I do complain a lot and I would go so it's rather to only know praise when you have done something
So they've been really really welcome
I mean the one out from wait for to the school to pack has been really well received
It's something long as for and some the additional services and some yourselves. So I still say thank you
Thank you very much
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:28:24
Thank you very much
Thank you
Cllr Caroline Firth - 0:28:34
Tim said, he said the safety figures are perception, but we talked about this last year and we
said we didn't know whether they were perception or not because we'd not had the crime figures
and no analysis had been done on that and it was going to be brought to a meeting after
that and it hasn't been.
So I was wondering if that can be done please this time because we need to know if it's
perception and then have that discussion with the public and it might help increase patronage
if we know that it is perception and then can show them the data and encourage people
to use the bus network. So yeah, also the stats haven't improved. We're doing the same
things and getting the same results so who's working on a hypothesis and what will change
this year to improve that, those figures for next year. I wondered about the violence against
women and girls' weeks of action and what they involved.
And also, there are 113 safety and revenue support offices
in Manchester on the network at the moment,
post -franchising.
So how are we gonna learn from that model?
And how will we improve safety and perception of safety
after franchising here?
Oh, and also, totally unrelated,
that you asked in the report about the presentation of data
for the best performing routes particularly because they involve all
involve Keighley and shorter routes. As a Keighley Councillor I'd appreciate if we
could keep those in but the eighth suggestion would be a good one for me.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:30:14
Thank you Councillor Firth. So I'll leave the first bus, the petition to first bus
to answer. So Tim can you just go on about the late running and the real -time
information for council Courtney.
Yeah, no, if I can take the point about time travel information.
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:30:28
And again, operators may want to comment on their involvement
in the management of real time information.
Clearly, we're reliant on them to cancel services
in their systems fit to propagate through to ours.
We recognise that that isn't always done as well as we would
hope.
And again, through the bus lines,
we're trying to encourage improvement in that.
I think we are seeing it, but it needs to still go further.
As I'm sure you'd expect us to say, through franchising,
we're setting minimum standards in that.
but that is a way off for certain parts
of the district as well.
I will, I'm happy to go on record in terms of our
on -street paper timetable not being good enough
in terms of being updated as part of the reason
or the main reason for me introducing the KPIs this year
is to aid to shine a light on that
and to make sure that we've got some way of measuring
what our service expectations are on that.
So, you know, I'm holding that team in my electorate
to account and, you know, giving them a little bit
of a hard time frankly to make sure we sit here
those challenges. It is largely a resource issue but we need to get that resource
fixed and get our processes right. So I just you know I would ask for some
degree of patience but equally please keep raising those issues where you see
them because I can use that as evidence to prove that we have to get better.
Weaver?
In terms of Weaver, so I think there's a paper described we are in the process of
taking a paper to the command authority in September that is the plan that will
describe this approach the underlying principle is that what we're not going
to do is roll it out to stops unless it is a new stop or replacement stop that
we would otherwise put in place. There are different programmes that stop
replacement that are taking place across the command authority at the moment and
we are going to say we we are incorporating those changes into those
programmes of work to make sure that we are spending that money wisely so it is
likely that you'll also see on significant asset changes so things like
Heckman Dwight bus station, for example, you know, it is it is inconceivable that will be the branding
You know significant asset refurbishment or build in anything other than we were coming forward
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:32:32
Yeah, so certainly so
Firstly, you're absolutely right
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:32:38
Councillor Firth we do need to bring a report back. So I'll absolutely make sure
that that is on the
the next agenda
We also
need to build further on the PCSO model that we have
present where we've got 15 a team of 15 effectively
PCSOs
Across
The conurbation where that works
it definitely
Has demonstrated
that it builds confidence within the travelling public but that number is
spread over 800 square miles of West Yorkshire which is clearly a huge
challenge. I was just checking back on the the numbers in Greater Manchester so
so in Greater Manchester there are 50 travel safe offices dedicated to the
system in particular and the further 113 travel safe support and enforcement
officers across the bus network I'll get the full information out but my
recollection is that quite a significant number of those officers are PCA PCSO
equivalent trained frontline staff of transport operators so this doesn't all
necessarily have to be a net additional cost and I think that's an aspect that
we we need to look into as we pick up now with our market engagement looking
forward into franchising so very grateful to have have the challenge we
will bring back quite a full time report next time that goes into the data but I
think also starts to look at comparative provision across a few different city
regions to set out where we are in comparison with others. Thank you so
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:34:53
about giving people confidence to use busses isn't it? So I just got to first of all
for about the petition that Councillor Courtney raised and if you want to also
that's coming through a lot. What can we do collectively to increase patronage?
I'll start with the service reductions. We hear the frustration that it isn't ever our
John Roxburgh - 0:35:18
intention to do this. As an operator, we carry 25 % of all services, all loss making, and
Megan Hope - 0:35:23
and we are able to position them up because of the other services that we have.
So patronage is a big reason as to why we've had to look at cutting services.
We've seen a 10 % reduction in patronage in the Colvedale area year on year,
which obviously means some of those services that weren't loss making and were breaking even
have gone into that space.
And so what we've done is we've looked at that patronage data
and we've looked at where the network is being utilised more
and that's led to the decisions that we've made.
and clearly you've got a petition and feel free to share that with us and we're happy to have more conversations with you offline about that.
But yeah, you already quoted it, it's commerciality and that's the reason we've had to do it from a business perspective.
We can only carry so many loss -making services and it is a real issue for us across the whole of West Yorkshire.
We've seen a 13 % reduction in patronage, mainly around young people and adults.
What we're seeing is the short hop services, so services less than a mile, people are choosing to walk.
the weather's been fairer this year and that is driving some of that. You
mentioned that there was obviously less journeys, that's why and that's what
we're seeing. So in terms of patronage we're always keen to talk about how we
do bus prioritisation and work with the council around where we can make the
services faster, make them a little bit more frequent and to really encourage
people, commuters, people who are coming out for tourism to use our bus services
and clearly it doesn't help anyone to be sat in congestion.
But when the bus is sat in congestion too,
it's not encouraging people to get onto those services.
So, listen, yeah, patronage is a big concern for us
and we think that as we get into the winter months,
we'll see those short hop journeys increase again.
But it's a massive fall off of 13 %
is something that we've not really seen before.
And then in terms of ghost busses,
we've been asked to comment on that.
So we are looking at technology around auto cancelation.
So there are numerous systems that need to be updated that then push that message out into the public eye
And we've got some technical issues around that
But we are hopeful that once we can get all of those bugs out of the system
It will massively improve and there's a manual element to this and when people have to pull manual things into multiple systems
human error occurs
So auto cancelations is something that first bus are looking at
And we will continue to push that and continue to work as hard as we can on making that technology go live
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:37:54
Okay, so we'll revisit some of those but I've got other people want to speak so councillor pinock Fatima and then Councillor Davis and
Councillor steel
Thank you chair
Cllr Andrew Pinnock - 0:37:59
Customer information is obviously of great importance to everybody and
and I'm very pleased that Councillor McLaughlin
mentioned ghost busses and I think it would be very helpful
if they got out of the system altogether
because trying to understand when busses are going to turn up
is very difficult sometimes,
but if there are busses that shouldn't be there
for whatever reason, then we need to get rid of them.
But the point I was going to make in relation to that was it's very noticeable
travelling into Leeds from from
that when you cross the boundary into Leeds there are
There's a lot more information at bus stops about what busses are coming
We don't seem to have very many in our part of Kirklees. I don't know about
Matthew's bit but but the
we could do with a programme of installing bus stops
with more information about the next busses.
And a very small point, I raised this
when we had a pre -meeting yesterday,
that the changes to the 254 route,
which enabled it to provide a direct service
from Cleckington to Huddersfield,
much better than it was before.
The change took place
after the date that the authority is proposing to use as the base for
franchising and I'm
Asking that this change be put into
that
List because as far as I can see it has been successful and is very well used
Thank you
Thank You
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:40:03
Thanks chair. So just a couple of reflections on this really comprehensive paper, Tim. The
Fatima Khan-Shah (Inclusivity Champion) - 0:40:08
first one regarding the section that my colleague referred to regarding passenger experience.
Do we capture any demography information about whether it impacts particular groups of people
within society, say their sexuality or ethnicity or faith for example, because we get a lot
of feedback from the outreach work that the Mayor and I have been doing regarding people's
experiences of transport being motivated by discrimination or hate crimes and it'd be
helpful to understand whether that is the case. The second bit was wondering whether
there's an opportunity for us to build on the great work you're doing with the Safer
Travel team about how to support individuals who are experiencing discrimination while
using transport. So if a colleague's not available, an officer's not available, what does somebody
do in that situation, how do they report it, etc. And then the final one was just a reflection
that I heard from the estates team in particular about the fact that quite often our transport
hubs are one of the few places in society that are open all the time and quite often
as a consequence of that we get people in society that are on the periphery of society
seeking help and intervention from our staff with sometimes complex mental health situations,
some safeguarding situations etc. So I wondered in the paper that you're referring to Simon,
is there an opportunity for us to maybe explore what work we could do with partners, say health
for example, to really support passenger experience in a tangible way, really
maximising the relationships we've got.
Thank you and Councillor David.
Thank you, I've got a few points if that's okay.
So firstly on the real -time information units I noticed that 200 are going to be
Cllr Debbie Davies - 0:41:44
replaced. I just wondered are they faulty or could they be reused elsewhere
because there's a lot of areas that don't have any and they obviously are
really valuable.
So that was one question.
Secondly, in terms of punctuality and reliability,
what are the incentives to bus operators to be on time?
And what are the consequences, if they're not?
Thirdly, as a new member, I was quite surprised
that the Cuts to School bus services
haven't come to this committee.
I know they're going to the main meeting tomorrow.
I just wondered why that was.
Bus shelters.
I've recently had a bit of a spate of broken glass in my ward,
but I just wondered, are they always glass or can they be plastic?
Is there other alternatives?
Because obviously that's an expense that you don't need.
On buying tickets, it states that using an app or website
is reduced by 3 % buying for bus tickets, and it's up 3 % for train tickets.
I just wondered what the actual figures are because that doesn't mean a lot. There's no actual numbers on
What percentage of people do use the app or the website?
So the particular questions on the RTI is in real -time information across to
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:43:05
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:43:09
Yeah, so I think for this time take some of those in turn
So in terms of retail real -time distribution, I think it's probably fair to say council
can have a written equal distribution across the districts.
I'm happy to look at where we could better try and address that balance.
Again, through some of the work we're doing as part of bus franchising implementation
programme, making sure we've got more consistent deployment of those units across the region
is part of our mission.
We'll be setting more of that out in terms of our customer proposition work through bus
franchising as well.
They're not cheap to buy, they're not cheap to maintain, but we want to make sure that
where there is need, and that might not necessarily be just on the basis of demand or boardings.
There might be certain communities that are less able to use other means for passing information
and therefore certain stops might be entirely reasonable to do that.
So happy to look at that on a case by case basis.
Just picking up the point around the demographics, the researchers contain all that, we get very
specific demographics in terms of respondents so we can cut the data by all of those demographics.
So again, very happy to sit down and talk you through what information we have available
and introduce you to the team that manages that process.
I think to your point, and again it would be helpful to incorporate into that safety
paper the role of bus stations as places of safety and making sure that we do
recognise the role that they play. You know, by way of example we've had a fairly
serious incident to Huddersfield today and a member of our staff intervene and
help a person in distress. You know, that happens on a frequent basis, I'm
sure all members know, so I think it is important that we play our role but also
work with partners in making sure we offer that level of support. And
Councillor Davies, just to pick up on some of your questions, most of those
units are end of life so they are either faulty or unrepairable in terms of their
age and condition. If we are able to redeploy them we will but I suspect in
large part they can't be done. Punctuality and reliability at the
moment operators are largely bound by the requirements of the traffic
commissioner so the traffic commissioner sets certain standards by which they
need to achieve. Clearly under a franchise bus regime we will be setting
more prescriptive targets and consequences or indeed you know
encouragement ultimately in terms of trying to have operators perform to a
high standard in terms of those matters. School services we intentionally didn't
want to prejudge the outcome of the conversation of the command authority
tomorrow and bring forward recommendations so the point at which
this paper was was authored clearly we were still in the process of
offering and finalising recommendations for the CA tomorrow but no great
I'm sure following yesterday following tomorrow's decision under two future committee meeting here. We can come back and have a conversation about that
How that process will take place in future?
In terms of shelters
predominantly are glass in terms of their build again in certain circumstances if we're seeing how
levels of
ASB and vandalism then we can replace them with
alternative materials and again if there are particular problems that members
have then please please let me know happy to do so
we're also in the process of renewing our shelter contract
um for 2026 and again can look at um more robust but um still appealing and
you know we don't want shelters to be unwelcoming so you know making sure that
they can still be seen through and people feel safe at them is clearly also
important in their design uh and finally you have some questions
around app numbers i don't have them to hand i'm afraid but again happy to
Either include them in the minutes if that it works remembers or I can share with you direct again
Happy to take an action on that if that's helpful
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:46:52
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:47:00
So we'll cut out the case -by -case basis we are keen to continue to keep those kinds of services what we're not going to do is
be
Unswervingly prescriptive on saying that where services only existed in March 2024
Those are the services that will then
Translate into the franchise network is clearly there are things that we've enhanced since then that we'd like to retain
Members won't probably know but I've recently
Approved an extension to a service called the t6 to 8 t8 in Calderdale an evening extension that service
That didn't exist in March, but I fully intend to keep that for example. So again case by case basis
But you know if it's proving beneficial and it will almost certainly be retained. Thank you
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:47:45
Thank you councillor Steele. I've got next
Thank you chair
There's a table for the bus reliability performance in May
2025
With the x84 my old favourites is like 9 .1 percent of them councils and there's the excuse that people were
running the Leeds Marathon and that was the large majority of it.
Cllr Eric Firth (Kirklees Council) - 0:48:09
But it's still a very, very unreliable service.
Chris Steele - 0:48:14
There's a couple of things. The timetable in particular
still seems to allow for roadworks
between Burley and Ilkley where a new roundabout
was put in and now the busses, I'm told that the
X84 can wait up to 8 minutes in Burley
to continue its journey so it keeps to the timetable.
That seems a complete waste of resources to have a bus sat still.
And I'd like to suggest that while you might not feel like you can restore it to the full half hourly service rather than the every 40 minute service it is now,
and there have been three timetable changes already in the last year.
You look at changing the timetable again to take account of the changed circumstances of developments
and also to add an extra, perhaps add an extra service during peak hours when people are more likely to use it
to travel into Leeds and from Leeds to Ilkley.
There's two big developments on the route of Bramhope and Burley
and we should really be encouraging people to use the bus service to drive and use the
parking drive to come into Leeds. It doesn't make sense that a reduced bus service would
encourage people to drive to use a bus service. I'd also like to, I saw the figures on disabled
access on busses and the usage was down by 1%. As a disabled person myself, this worries
me that people are being put off using busses by unreliability. The way people use busses
has changed but disabled people still need to be included in society. If you have a disabled
bus pass you can't use it before 9 .30. If you need to get to a job or a job interview
or you want to do volunteering work it seems mass to exclude people from being able to
travel before 9 .30. And finally there used to be a Transdev bus, the 62, that drove along
the Wharf Valley to Keighley which was really useful for my constituents for appointments
at Del Hospital and I'd really like that to be looked at being reinstated.
Thank you very much. I'll go to Councillor McLaughlin.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:50:49
Thank you, Chair. I'm just moving to Appendix 2. I've got a couple of quick points and then a question for Areva.
Cllr Eric Firth (Kirklees Council) - 0:50:59
But the first point was just building on what Councillor Firth said earlier in terms of moving from a top 5 to a top 8 or 10
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin - 0:51:02
because otherwise it's always going to be the same. I would echo that having 8 or 10
would if it's possible would be would be useful to have the more data we have the
better informed we will be in there the more we'll learn. And also I've made this
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:51:19
raised this point before on the reliability data is presented the
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin - 0:51:23
target for reliability is 99 .5 % but in the tables you're giving the percentage
of services that are cancelled. It would be useful for understanding if those were consistent
with each other. I just think that would improve things.
And now to Eriva. For the benefit of those wonderful people listening at home, at the
back of this report we have a catalogue of month by month breakdown of the best and worst
bus services in West Yorkshire and, well we're supposed to have an accompanying explanation
with the services that aren't doing so well. But repeatedly, ARIVA did not comment on the
102 service. ARIVA did not provide comments on the 271 or the 476. ARIVA did not provide
any feedback on the 271 or the 195A. ARIVA did not provide response to the 444, the 195A
or the 156. So I just wanted to ask ARIVA why they don't think they have to explain
the reason for the god -awful service that some of our residents have to put up with.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:52:27
I'll go first of all to Tim around Buster Keighley and Disability 930 that Councillor
Steele answered.
Yeah, I mean I'll have to have a separate conversation with Transdev about the removal
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:52:39
of that service, I'm afraid I'm not particularly familiar with it, Chair, but I'm happy to
have a conversation about the reasons for this withdrawal and see if there's anything
we can do working with Transdev to consider reinstatement.
In terms of pre -930 and disabled travel, I think there's a few things I'd say on this.
We clearly recognise that that can be a challenge and we should be encouraging disabled people
to work in clearly a pre -930 restriction doesn't consider or help that.
As part of our fares, ticketing and retail strategy work, again ahead of franchising,
we are considering what enhancements to our statutory concessions might be possible
and that is already a well -known concession that we are looking at.
So again, please please give us time to consider those and we will come back to you
in due course
In terms of data from council mclaughlin happy to include 10 years
however equally
Your point about reversing the percentages to reliability again. It's a presentation issues and the issues in making that change
So thank you for that for that suggestion
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:53:44
Thank you. And Areva, obviously, Councillor McLaughlin highlighted some particular issues there. Do you want to address some of those?
Richard Hoare - 0:53:54
Yeah, I think happy to. I think within Areva lately there's been a reshuffle of staff so if there's been a missed response we'll have to go back through the report and provide responses for anything this week.
And again, if there's concerns over individual services, happy to take them off to this meeting.
but what's really pleasing when you look at the data of the Wakefield area and the wider
arrever business, performance is probably at its best it's been in two years now and
that's happened in the space of the last two to three months so there's significant improvement
on the services, albeit it's not where it needs to be, but certainly we review them
on a monthly basis with authority members and councillors and happily share that with
you because pleasingly it's on a positive trend which continues to improve and needs
to do some of that obviously is because the service has been cooked so therefore
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:54:42
the liability probably improves as a result isn't it but I'd also that's not a
position we want to be want to be expanding services and also maintain a
reliability and can I just go to first bus about the x84 as well please that
Council Steele raised.
Yeah, so our stats are actually looking really positive
John Roxburgh - 0:55:01
for the x84 since the last service
change on the 18th of May.
Megan Hope - 0:55:06
So over the last 13 weeks, our start time adherence,
so starting on our time point, is 94%.
And our on -time performance is 84%, so just a percent
off of the benchmark that we would be looking to meet.
So obviously, there's room for improvement there.
And we're always looking to improve.
We always monitor the data and make sure
that we're on top of what's happening in terms of our timetables that we live in
leaving too much lax in the middle of is there too much of a start too much at
the end so if we do find that in our next service change there is a there's a
reason to change it based on the data then then we will consider that at the
time and but so far that the stats are looking really positive for us so
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:55:49
to make sure that we've caught up on some of those individual services and
before we close this item I just want to go to each the bus operators because
we've had punctual not punctuality patronage come upon a regular basis you
can sort of first was talked about a little bit but if the others can also
address that and safety on busses and make sure you know people of all
demographics feel safe on busses it's what we all obviously goes hand in hand
with patronage doesn't it really so ariva did you want to go for that first
and any other things that you think we should be aware of that you're doing
Richard Hoare - 0:56:29
that might affect busses in West Yorkshire? Yeah happy to I guess if I take the passenger
safety foremost whether it be in bus stations or actually you know travelling
on the services I think clearly there's some really good examples around the
country of worse schemes like TFGM or Liverpool City Region that investment in
joint working around PCSOs and what you can do to support that but using it
really data -led, certainly you know I'm new to the area coming and covering. I
think there's opportunity and there's examples that we can hopefully help
share from wider audiences across the UK about how you use limited resources
really targeted to hit certain areas so I think that's something that we'd be
really keen to help progress and certainly happy to have conversations on
that and it's proven to have significant impact and results. I think driver
training and staff training is crucial whether that be the drivers in service
and that's something I know we do as a company but you can never do enough and
certainly using bus stations and clearly we operate the one in Wakefield and
having those conversations about making them safe spaces and since then we've
spent money on investing in Wakefield bus station to actually house police
officers in the bus station to help with antisocial behaviour so that will
actually go live in the next couple of weeks once the building works have been
finished. So you know there are improvements to make, there's
opportunities to improve things so keen to work with you on that. I think when
When you look at bus patronage from the Areva network, we're slowly seeing a recovery, clearly
service delivery as Councillors have pointed out, hasn't historically been where it needs
to be.
We're seeing that recovery now in patronage, the reduction in customer complaints and improvement
in punctuality and reliability.
But we are seeing across the network, circa similar to what first have highlighted, around
the 3 % overall patronage reduction.
And when you look at that on a national basis, it's quite similar.
I think we're seeing that across the UK, so West Yorkshire is no different in that aspect.
I think the other elements of an ARIVA point of view to update on, you know it's really
pleasing to say this week actually for the first time we're back in Barnsey Road from
a bus operations point of view, so the fleet's now housed back in Barnsey Road after probably
six to seven months of issues it's fair to say.
With that, that again should see a significant improvement on service delivery in the Wakefield
area.
So the other element it's pleasing to say is as we move into the peak around September
time the business will be back to full establishment.
So we have had to make some network cuts which were previously talked about they're now in but with that
There's been a significant improvement in driver establishment. And again, that's you see a marked improvement on service delivery
I'm keen to work with the authority and members and what we can do to stabilise services and potentially bring back further improvements
going to the new year.
Any thoughts on patronage?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:59:07
Richard Hoare - 0:59:08
Sorry, it was around the remarks of again we're seeing the recovery in patronage as service improvement kicks in,
but we're seeing around that 3 to 4 % reduction across the network on a volume basis,
whether that be services that have seen negative service performance or services that have been consistently performing.
So again, if we're looking to attract and encourage patronage,
It is about my colleagues and first have said about
enhancements on the highway
Enhancements in fleets and also enhancements in punctuality reliability
But you know the one thing the customer says to us continually and that's brought out by the transport focus service
Punctuality is the number one for customers at the minute
It used to be first that's significantly reduced with the national scheme come in two pound and obviously the two pound fifty offer in West
Yorkshire but punctuality and reliability is what the customers after
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 0:59:58
John Roxburgh - 1:00:01
Megan Hope - 1:00:05
and how we can really drill into those figures but also how can we partner with external
providers to help us manage that on our network. So we've recently launched a partnership with
Strutsafe which is about when you get off a bus if you feel like you want to
have someone to talk to you can give them a phone call and speak to
someone as you walk home and we advertise that across all of our busses
on the network and we continuously work with everyone that we can around this
and we are getting some new ticket machines across our fleet in October and
some of you will know that we trialled some safety measures on our ticket
machines a couple months ago which was around the drivers enhanced
reporting ability and for any ASB on the busses it was it was drilled into what it
was who it was and allowed us to drill a little bit more into that diversity
issue so definitely something that we are really keen on supporting and
working with with partners on and particularly the combined authority and
I think I've already commented on the patronage issue and I suppose why did
news across first I've mentioned we're getting new ticket machines which is
always a positive thing it improves the passenger journey and it means that
things will move a bit quicker, a bit swifter, hopefully improving that
pointuality target. In terms of lost mileage year on year we've got a 17 %
improvement across all of our services and our driver establishment at the
moment it's improved by 27 % so we're operating about 106 % what we need
which obviously is driving that improvement around our lost mileage and
we are just really keen to continue to support on any technological advancements
as the guys at Areva said, it is all about our MPS and our data from the
passengers on our busses is saying that it's all about punctuality and so our
next service change which is happening at the end of August is based on that
and you will see us targeting those bottom 10 % services where our on -time
performance isn't where we want it to be and we'll be returning those services to
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:02:17
try and improve that. Thank you. Hopefully we do that with combined
authorities so they know which services those are or should all be doing partnership
Yes, so just the first element on punctuality.
So we have been working a lot to improve our punctuality at all regional level and we really
started to see some result starting from April.
Henri Rohard Transdev - 1:02:40
So normally you should start seeing some massive improvement of punctuality and seeing some
services we have increased by 10 points our punctuality.
So one example is Flyer, I know that this is one of the services that some of you are really looking at.
Today at Flyer we are above 90 % and our first departure we are above 94%.
In June we were a bit lower on that because we are still waiting for the new busses.
We have the whole fleet that has been renewed in June in Flyer, so you should start seeing that on the street now.
There are completely new busses, but the change that we did in June affected the VITA punctuality.
So we were at 87%, which is still a good performance.
So we will continue to improve that in July and the following months,
and I hope that the new busses will continue to sustain flyer properly.
In terms of patronage, it's true that at UK level we can see a decrease of patronage.
I think one of the major element is the end of the two point fair cap
That went from two to three
This is a 50 % increase elasticity worst case scenario was we're going to lose 14 % of our ridership
Today we're only losing 6 %
so we still have I think the network is still strong and
Despite the increase of fair cap. I think the system is quite solid
To go back a bit more in detail on winter, we had the fair cap impact, so the two points to 2 .5 which is not neutral.
We had the snow, so in February we had 10 days of snow. That impacted by 30 % our ridership during 10 days.
That's for us just at trans -dev level, we are more or less saying that we have lost 100 ,000 passengers in 10 days.
This is part of the explanation.
And I will say one last point, but I don't know how Wicca has calculated the elements,
but we have one less day compared to 24 because of the 29th of February.
So that's one point impact.
So just to end up, I think patronage in Wicca is still strong.
I will be a bit more positive than what I've heard here, because despite the snow,
despite one day less and despite an increase of 25 % of the fare cap we are
still at 3 % impact and it's much better than the other region.
That's positive.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:05:13
Councillor Fazio, you indicated a very short question, he's also got to answer rail next.
I just wanted to ask about the flyer and you said there's going to be new busses and I also wanted to ask about the 662.
Cllr Caroline Firth - 1:05:21
Are they going to be electrified then because the 662 I understand you got funding for that some time ago and they're still not electrified?
662, Keesley to Bradford, Chotel, they will be all electrified by the end of September,
so we are still working with Weka.
We have also go from the DNO, which was one of our main issues, connexion to the grid,
so we are getting connected mid of August with all the tests and the additional connexions.
I think best case scenario will be mid of September, best case scenario will be end
September and the whole shuttle will be electrified and we will have additional busses to run also
on KISI network to provide additional electric type of services.
We are also looking on the weekends to see if we can improve the usage of the electric
busses in KISI to make sure that we can use as much as possible those new busses.
But they are on track, I'm sorry for the delay.
All the busses, we have 15 busses, 13 are in Coventry today, we are still lacking two that are supposed to come in the next two weeks.
And the grid connexion will be earlier from the 18th of August now.
Henri Rohard Transdev - 1:06:35
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:06:36
Now, Councillor Zaman wants to speak.
Very brief answer because we really need to move on.
Cllr Amjad Zaman - 1:06:46
Thank you Chair. This is interesting. I'm a Central Ward Councillor and I was searching Central Ward in Keighley anyway.
So you're bringing out these new busses, but what market have you done within the Keighley
community and the wider community by busses?
In the olden days when Graham was the managing director for Trans -African Communications,
he actually would call the district councils in.
They were actually making sure of it, get something out to the community.
This is brilliant news for Keighley and surrounding areas, but nobody knows that you've got these
busses coming out.
Can we do something working with you so we can promote this and hopefully more people
will use the busses and it's better, it's benefiting the environment as well at the same time?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:07:22
So can we take that off? Can you stay until after the meeting and then follow that up
with something that's a good idea to do something offline afterwards. Is that OK? Thank you
very much. So moving on to the transport operations rail. Obviously we've got our rail operators

7 Transport Operations - Rail

here as well. Can I, Simon, who is this? Very brief.
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:07:48
I'll give a quick two minute overview of the report and some key points. And since passenger
trends, northernness showing a 9 % year -on -year growth, customer satisfaction is up a couple
of percent, 69%, and showing strong leisure growth of around 10%. As well as that, there
is starting to be more of a push around commuters, so some ticketing initiatives around season
tickets that northern are pushing at the moment are significant. TPE, 6 % passenger growth,
which is good news. Both TPE and northern, while not fully resolved, have much more stable
industrial relations in the year than half in the past which is which is improving the service overall
LNER growth up by 7 % year -on -year
And if you look at lead station, that's now it's 88 % of the pre -pandemic levels weekend showing 114
114 % so this there's still continuing strong growth and recovery in terms of service changes for the recent May timetable
Changes a couple of highlights from that include the strengthening of some trains on the leads to skip to new clean services to six cars
Which made a big difference for communities and travellers and also the new Bradford Forster Square?
Platform that was open plus the London LNER services a lot more of those which is good news
In Paris 3 .9. We set out some of the wider service changes coming up in December
It's important to flag those early because a lot of those relate to the temporary changes due to transparent routes upgrade work
including as we've said a number of times before rape and stop station being remained closed for up to three years for works and
There's also the northern service leads Wakefield Westgate to Sheffield fast trains to come in
Hourly service which was supplement the cross -country service giving an effective 30 minute quick service between between those places
In terms of performance, we're still seeing more improvements on northern and TPE.
What's called time to three, that's sort of how much they keep to time overall.
Northern are up to 80%, 80 .7 % from 78 .2.
And TPE are up 4 % at 68 % as well.
Cancelations in our region, northern are at 3 .2 % and TPE about 5%.
What's the P codings which trains which are actually cancelled evening before which you may remember?
We had a significant number of those 18 months or so ago. They're at practically zero overall
So there's some good news there for greater certainty for passengers
316 reference TPE driver training which is paying dividends and again that's seeing an 80 % decrease in cancelations
as a result of that
But we are seeing some issues around the short -forming trains which are publicised as being a certain
length but are not coming out at that length.
About 11 % of northern trains are of that type at the moment.
It's only about 0 .5 % of TPE trains.
In terms of passenger network enhancements, there's a recent spending review confirmation
of the 3 .5 billion to continue on with the TRU works, which is great news.
The report also gives a brief update on the White Rose Station, which was highlighted
through the May Combined Authority Report.
We're still working through the issues to get that remobilized, and we'll be providing
an update to the Combined Authority in September on this, and we'll be engaging with scrutiny
ahead of this as well, in terms of what lessons learned there are in respect of White Rose
and wider delivery of stations.
In 3 .28 there's some really important information around future TRU transparent routes upgrade disruption plans
Including impacts on Huddersfield, Merfield at weekend, Dayton
Dewsbury and the weekend between Leeds and York and
Also highlighting the end of year issues between Leeds and Church Fenton
There has been some great work working in partnership working on passenger information with the TRU team and will ensure we continue to push and
support our messages for passengers during ongoing disruption.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:11:46
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:11:46
Finally, on accessibility schemes, there have been some ongoing lift issues at Garthfield Station, which had recent accessibility improvements.
At Menston, there's been good progress around the accessibility scheme there to put new bridge and lifts in, with completion in spring.
And Network Rail have taken on delivery of Todmorden accessibility improvements from Northern.
We still are working through the issues of Pontefract Monk Hill which encountered difficulties when northern had to
Remove their contractor from from the scheme the access for all
Discussions ongoing with the rail industry to understand how we how we can assist in helping to bring this forward
So I'll leave it at that chair. Thank you, Catherine Morley
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:12:27
Yeah, thank you chair
Cllr Matthew Morley - 1:12:33
Welcome the announcements of the new services for the district to the way through districts
And I'll also thank you for the comments you've made regarding monkey as well. I'm notice the challenges there
But it's something we do need to move forward on not in the report, but it would be remiss
I didn't to say a massive. Thank you to this committee to officers and to Northern to Darren for the
announcement of robot Rob Burrows a train being named after him the initial idea came from the customer's society and
he was raised this committee and a lot of people raised it, but I think what a great way to
and honour Rob and his fantastic legacy for the West Shore and for the greater country in Yorkshire and all that so
Just to say a massive. Thank you for Norvand for doing that
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:13:14
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 1:13:25
Thank you very much and no one be surprised as Kirkley's representative that I've picked out as a timetable improvement on the Peniston line mentioned
in these papers a small step in the journey that we need to make to improve that line.
I'd also like to thank everyone for their ongoing support for lobbying for this project.
I mean, the development of the OBC is now well underway and it's a good step towards
a meaningful improvement on the line and strategic importance in connecting the West Yorkshire
and South Yorkshire combined authorities and in bringing that line out of the 80s where
it is still stuck.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:13:59
Thank you. Councillor McLaughlin. Thank you chair. Welcome the report. Thank you.
Just a quick couple of points on the appendix and the figures in the
appendix. Can we count, I've asked this before as well, could we figure out a way
to put the P coding figure in the tables as not just in the text so that we don't
have to because it is a cancelled service it's slightly different which is
why it's called something different but it should be included in the figures but
Cllr Neil Buckley - 1:14:26
Well, very welcome news that it's it's significantly redound from where it used to be
But also the the time to 15 information seems to be missing
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin - 1:14:32
in throughout the appendix
It's mentioned on page one of the appendix as one of the measures in the sub glossary of explanations
But then none of that data is actually present anywhere in the report. I'm just wondering where is
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:14:48
Thank you, I was gonna ask the same question but one more
Cllr Debbie Davies - 1:14:49
Northern continues to be affected by train cruise shortages.
We've been told this since COVID.
I just wonder why that's still the case.
Councillor Firth, I think you're indicating.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:14:59
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Eric Firth (Kirklees Council) - 1:15:03
Can I thank Derek first of all for,
he's almost galloped to this paper,
but it's all good news, or just about good news.
But I'd just like to raise with the operators
3 .19 and 320 in the agenda.
about the rolling stock situation, which isn't getting any better.
And I know Northern are going to procure a new fleet in a too distant future.
But in the interim, they're going to struggle with what we've got.
And can I ask, are you confident that we can actually manage,
that you can manage the situation going forward.
Toby Patrick-Bailey - 1:16:06
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:16:07
Sorry, Chair, what was the last point?
Toby Patrick-Bailey - 1:16:11
It was under services, wasn't it?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:16:12
Was it the under services?
Staff shortages.
Toby Patrick-Bailey - 1:16:14
Thank you, Councillor Morley, for the kind words about Rob Burrow and the train naming and the Motu Noron Disease Association that we will be sponsoring and obviously wrapping our train.
Further details will be released near the time when we have a full plan.
I think a couple of mentions on the rolling stock. Given our cancelations
and we've obviously been through a performance improvement plan, we're
cancelling about 3 .2 % of trains. Some of our best performing routes,
leased Ilkley, leased to Bradford, performing at 98 % without cancelations.
And I think the six car introduction again has been a really key item for the
the customers of West Yorkshire. So we're not seeing, we've improved, we are
improving, we continue to do so. So we're not seeing the short forming as hugely
detrimental to the train plan and the operation, which is great because we're
looking at crowding data. We also use advanced purchasing to try to encourage
customers on to less well utilised services. So that's all the data Intel
has laid. From the fleet position as you're all aware we have a procurement plan
for a new fleet which will see all of our older diesel trains eliminated and
gone by 2040. Obviously that takes time, we'll see the introduction of these new
trains by around 2030 and it's really worth noting that in 2020 we did
purchase a hundred new trains you'll have seen these out on the NetWorker
the 195s and the 331 rolling stock so we are working on this however it takes
time some of our rolling stock is 41 years old the 150 fleet which the
Peniston line will have seen and testament to. As a former driver I
I love the 150s so but from a customer perspective they're not ideal.
So I think shortages with managing that it's not brilliant when you have old rolling stock
and you know like any old car I suppose you need more maintenance than you would with
new.
The Sunday situation we need a, we still need a mandate for our conduct colleagues on Western Central to work a seven day railway.
So until that mandate is in place we will continue to have to work around the volunteer railway that we see on Western Central.
In the east, where we are here, we don't have that same problem.
However, services like the York Blackpools are adversely affected, especially on a Sunday,
by our lack of a seven -day agreement with the RMT and conductors.
We're working on that. We've got a rest -day working agreement with ASLEF, we've got a rest -day working agreement with the RMT,
but ultimately we need the seven -day railway to be contractual and that will
see the service provision where our customers demand and actually and
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:19:52
completely correctly deserve. Thank you very much and I don't know if TPE do you
want to say something briefly on your services before we go on to the next
Graham Meiklejohn - 1:20:06
item briefly yes thank you chair on paragraph 3 .19 the main issues they relate to the class 397s which predominantly operates on the West Coast Main Line so I think this section is taking complete data across company.
Sorry, let me move my stuff around.
Does that help at all?
A little bit better.
Thank you for the comments.
The comments in that paragraph regarding the 397s, I think it's the information relating
to the entire network we are operating and that particular fleet works on the west coast
main line.
So doesn't comment on that section the comment about the 185 is obviously that is a regular
Type of train that we bring through this part of the network. We've had a range of them isolated different faults
So which you worked through with Siemens on that train?
nothing
prolonged and nothing and
significant in terms of wider concern, but they have an impact which has had to be addressed which has had a
unusual effect in terms of increasing train faults. But let me give you the assurance
ourselves and our rolling stock suppliers are on top of it and trying to keep any delays
that happen from a rolling stock problem to a minimum.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:21:26
Lovely, thank you very much. So we note the rail report, then we move on to the West Yorkshire

8 The Mayor's West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan (LTP) - Statutory Consultation 2025

local transport plan which we've seen a lot at this committee I have to say. Is there
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:21:41
anything we need to do further at this committee? Thank you I think the reason
for bringing this back to this committee this week is we are due to go back to
consultation starting next Tuesday and for 12 week period from that point
onwards there is a briefing tomorrow at half past four with the mayor and all
ward councils across West Yorkshire to kind of get your kind of involvement and
your support to help promote and spread the word.
The main reason for bringing it back to this committee
is just to note a slight change in the policies that
were put to the Combine Authority on the 19th of June,
and to just bring that to this committee for noting, really.
We've added three additional policies which
sit kind of over and above.
The first one is really baking in kind
of the need to move towards sustainable modes
in a very clear, simple policy.
The second one is baking in the decision
taken on bus franchising in March last year
to make sure we have that as a key priority.
And thirdly, baking in our need to move
towards a programme for rail reform and strategic rail.
That was one that was previously sitting within our narrative.
But given where we are now in terms
of the launch of the White Rose Rail report,
we felt it's suitable to put that into a policy in itself. So that was the main
reason for bringing it back today and to make the committee aware of the incoming
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:23:12
consultation to start next week. And you want our help in spreading that far and
wide by the sounds of it which is what the recommendation says. Any questions on
this? Just very quickly chair, less of a question more of a thank you for
listening at the consultation events. I spent some time with you there didn't I Helen
Cllr Caroline Firth - 1:23:29
I can see responses to issues that people raised in this document and in these policies.
So thank you for listening. It is greatly appreciated.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:23:37
Very good. Thank you very much, Helen and team. Very good.
Any more questions? Are we happy, therefore, to accept these recommendations, which includes us doing some work and actually going out and telling people about this?
Can I recommend that? You can. All of it, please show. That is carried. Thank you very much.

9 Transport Policy Update

So final paper is transport policy updates including the EV charging which I think is
going through all the local authorities at the moment, isn't it?
So everybody should be familiar with this.
Thank you very much.
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:24:07
Just before I come on to that approval, if I may, the linking point, if you like, between
the local transport plan and Paperjust and the Transport Policy Update is the talking
transport sessions that we have just concluded the round of those on Monday in Wakefield.
We've had some really good discussions across the region and do just want to thank the engagement leads for really helping us to move those and promote those.
That's been some really good sessions.
Thank you.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:24:38
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:24:39
On to the actual paper, because that was kind of a timing thing.
So the EV strategy was approved, was adopted by a transport committee to our current transport plan in April.
what we're asking for here is adoption of the on -street guidance that we said
back in April we would want to bring into a future committee when we've just
done a little bit more work with your officers so that is what we're putting
here if we could have that as an approval through this committee.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:25:12
Thank you. Any questions? Debbie, Councillor Davies, sorry.
Cllr Debbie Davies - 1:25:16
Thank you, Jeff. Three questions if that's okay.
So many tourist streets have narrow pavements, narrow roads, very limited parking.
If you introduce build -outs for charging points,
is that going to impact on the amount of parking available?
That was one question.
Secondly, have you considered the impact of more street furniture on blind and partially sighted people?
And thirdly in the report there's there's just a brief mention of other developing technologies
But there is this does seem to be something that's happening quite frequently. I've read about portable electric charges
Hydrogen cars that generate their own electricity. Do you think we could get overtaken by new technology by putting this in?
We look hydrogen in Bradford
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:26:02
Just very quickly chair just this slight error in wording and if we're going to adopt the report
we want it to be right. On page 113 it says, these considerations may not be known at the
point of application. Presumably the point of application.
Chris Steele - 1:26:22
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:26:27
Anybody else, any questions before we go for answers? No. So Simon, Helen.
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:26:34
Thank you. Really good questions. So this has been part of the discussion we have been
having with districts about how we bring this forward in the context of the funding we have
available through the Levi fund. That's why we are adopting this as guidance because we
need local authorities to take the decision as they are applying the infrastructure to
that kind of environment that it's being rolled out to and making sure they maximise the locations
and think about that as a decision taken locally in the context of the highway authority.
Because we're not the highway authority, we can't take those decisions.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:27:13
It's quite a detailed policy document, isn't it, that we all need to go through and obviously
our highways officers have all the authorities been working together on this.
Sam, did you want to say something?
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:27:22
Just wanted to reassure members in particular that
If I refer members to the guiding principles that within the
That the guidelines here
There are a set of very very clear principles
Around us ensuring that there's no no obstruction of the footway through the mechanisms that developed
We continue to prioritise
use of our footways by all members of the community recognising the challenges
that the different members of the community will face so just to reassure
members that that principle is absolutely built into the advice that we're giving
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:28:08
to authorities here. And we all know we've got in our inboxes we've got
residents who want this kind of infrastructure so it's about how we
adapt with the times. So with that then I'm happy to recommend those
recommendations. All those in favour please show.
Thank you very much. That is carried and that I think is the end of the meeting

10 Date of the Next Meeting

today. Thank you very much. Did you have anything to say?
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:28:40
So there's two more items in the paper. One, that specific bit but the other items in there which was just an update around the
spending review which I wasn't necessarily going to go through but we haven't had a meeting
since that was launched on the infrastructure strategy and the consolidated active travel
fund which will be on as a change request at the combined authority tomorrow. We wanted
to thank the committee for all their support in helping us get to the point where that
goes to the committee tomorrow.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford Council) - 1:29:07
We have done workshops on the routes before and there will be more of that through the
Obviously it's a new committee, but there will be other workshops to do when we develop policy going forward
Which is very useful actually to combine authority. So thank you very much everybody for your attendance afternoon
And I see you at the next meeting