Transport Committee - Wednesday 29 October 2025, 2:00pm - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Transport Committee
Wednesday, 29th October 2025 at 2:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  2. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  3. Cllr Matthew Morley
  4. Adele Rae
  5. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  6. Cllr Scott Haslam
  7. Cllr Lisa Martin Leeds City Council
  8. Cllr Jonathan Pryor Leeds City Council
  9. Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council
  10. Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  11. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  12. Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council
  13. Cllr Howard Blagbrough Calderdale Council
  14. Cllr Tony McGrath, Kirklees Council
  15. Cllr Abdul Hannan
  16. Cllr Abdul Hannan
  17. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  18. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  19. Cllr Chris Steele, Bradford Council
  20. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  21. Cllr Caroline Firth
  22. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  23. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  24. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  25. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  26. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  27. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Rotimi Olorunfemi Committee Services Officer
  2. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  4. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  5. Cllr Caroline Firth
  6. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  3. Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  5. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  6. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  8. Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council
  9. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  10. Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council
  11. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  12. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  13. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  14. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  15. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  16. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  17. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  18. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  19. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  20. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  21. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  22. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  23. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  24. Cllr Matthew Morley
  25. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  26. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  27. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  28. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  29. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  30. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  31. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  32. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  33. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  34. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  35. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  36. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  37. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  38. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  39. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  40. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  41. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  3. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  5. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  6. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  8. Cllr Matthew Morley
  9. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  10. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  11. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  12. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  13. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  14. Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council
  15. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  16. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  17. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  18. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  19. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  20. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  21. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  22. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  23. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  24. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  25. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  26. Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  27. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  28. Cllr Howard Blagbrough Calderdale Council
  29. Cllr Tony McGrath, Kirklees Council
  30. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  31. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  32. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  33. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  34. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  35. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  36. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  37. Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council)
  38. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  3. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  4. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  5. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  6. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  8. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  9. Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council
  10. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  11. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  2. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  3. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  4. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  5. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  6. Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  8. Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council
  9. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  10. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  11. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  13. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  15. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  16. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  17. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  18. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  19. Cllr Chris Steele, Bradford Council
  20. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  21. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  22. Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  23. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  3. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  5. Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council
  6. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  8. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  9. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  10. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  11. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  12. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  13. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  15. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council
  16. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  3. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  4. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  5. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  6. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Melissa Liburd, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  5. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  6. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  7. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  8. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  9. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council
  10. Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council
  11. Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Melissa Liburd, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  13. Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  15. Cllr Caroline Firth
  16. Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  17. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
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  1. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council
  4. Webcast Finished

1 Apologies for Absence

Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:00:00
I think we'll just go on to say who we are and what authority we're representing.
My name is Susan Hinchliffe and I am leader of Bradford and chair of West Yorkshire Transport.
Peter.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council - 0:00:16
Hello, Councillor Peter Carle, the Councillor in Leeds, but I'm here as one of the two deputy chairs of the Transport Committee.
Councillor Eric Firth, the Catholic's Councillor, and I'm here as the other deputy chair.
Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council) - 0:00:27
Cllr Matthew Morley - 0:00:31
I'm the cabinet member of the Plannion and Highways at Wakefield Council.
Adele Rae - 0:00:37
Councillor Adel Ray, Councillor in Leeds for Bramley and Stanningley Ward.
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 0:00:42
Councillor Moses Kirk, deputy leader of Kirklees and Transport Portfolio Holder.
Cllr Scott Haslam - 0:00:47
Councillor Scott Haslam from Featherstone Mardin, Wakefield.
Cllr Lisa Martin Leeds City Council - 0:00:52
Councillor Lisa Martin, Leeds Transport Engagement Lead
Councillor Jonathan Pryde, Deputy Leader of Leeds and Portfolio Holder for Transport
Cllr Jonathan Pryor Leeds City Council - 0:01:01
Councillor Andrew Pinnock, Kirklees Councillor from Clekean
Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council - 0:01:06
Melissa Lybird, Head of Passenger Experience and Transport Services here at the Combined Authority
Thomas Locke, Transport Policy Manager at the Combined Authority
Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:01:18
Councillor Debbie Davies, Beethoven Ward and Bradford Council
Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council - 0:01:20
Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council - 0:01:24
Councillor Neil Buckley, Alderley Ward in Leeds
Cllr Howard Blagbrough Calderdale Council - 0:01:30
Councillor Howard Blackbriar, Leader of the Conservative Group on Coleridge Council
Cllr Tony McGrath, Kirklees Council - 0:01:35
Councillor Tony McGrath, Kirklees Council from Ballynorth
Cllr Abdul Hannan - 0:01:40
Councillor Abdul -Hannan for Leeds and Headingley High Park Ward
Councilman, Bradford Council.
Cllr Abdul Hannan - 0:01:46
Councillor Matthew McLachlan from Kirklees.
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 0:01:51
I'm the Transport Engagement Lead for Kirklees.
Councillor Colin Hutchinson from Calderdale.
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 0:01:56
I'm the Transport Engagement Lead.
Councillor Chris Still from Bradford Council.
Cllr Chris Steele, Bradford Council - 0:02:02
Councillor Sarah Courtney.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:02:05
I'm the Transport Portfolio Holder from Calderdale Council.
Cllr Caroline Firth - 0:02:11
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:16
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:24
Thank you very much.
We are able to assist today.
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:31
Thank you.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:02:33
Lovely.
Thank you very much.
Apologies for absence.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:02:40
We have apologies from Councillor Kate, we have Natalie Sykes and Fatima Kansha.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:02:54
Declaration of disclosure of pecuniary interests.
None indicated.
Thank you very much.
Exempt information.
I don't think we have any exempt information today, have we?
No.

2 Declaration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

3 Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

4 Minutes of the meeting of the Transport Committee held on 23 July 2025

Minutes of the meeting of the Transport Committee held on 23rd of July. Rotimi I
think you've already said there's been some error there. Yeah that was a
duplication of one of the items in I think that's for the bus transportation
Rotimi Olorunfemi Committee Services Officer - 0:03:31
for both. Thank you. So yeah apologies to members the introductory text the first
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:03:38
half of the text under the minute for item 8 transport operations the eagle -eyed
members such as Councillor Courtney will have noticed that that's actually a
reproduction of the bus minutes so the the rail minutes actually start with the
the line
The chair invited officers to introduce the report. So apologies there
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:04:04
Thank you. Just to show we're paying attention castle call. It's got more. Yeah. Sorry about that. Thank you very much. Yes, so under
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:04:11
Under
in the minutes 7 transport operation bus paragraph
of Transport Operations bus in paragraph three,
it says that I'd brought up about one of the bus services
being reduced and it's not the 159,
it's the 591 to Burnley.
So if that could be amended please, thank you.
And Councillor Firth, I think you also had a.
Yeah, thanks, Chair.
Under item seven, we were talking about safety
on the bus network was raised.
Cllr Caroline Firth - 0:04:39
I just think it's key that we put about safety
of women and girls,
because that's what specifically was discussed
rather than general safety.
and it's obviously said it'd be brought to another meeting and I know it
references that in the pack today as well but could we have clarity on when
that will be brought please.
Yes thank you Councillor Firth. Both the lead from West
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:05:06
Yorkshire Police and our lead internal colleague are both taking a well -earned
half -term break this week so they will be here for the next meeting to guide
members through the work that's been undertaken.
Thank you very much. Anything else on the minutes from anybody? No? In that case are we have to
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:05:27
correct with those provisos those amendments of course are we happy to
accept those as a correct record please show in favour thank you very much

For Decision

5 Transport Operations - Bus

Thank you very much. So with that we get on to the papers substantive ones
transport operations and bus there's quite a lot in here isn't there?
Who's going to start this Tim?
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:05:53
Thank you chair. I will obviously take the paper as read. I was proposing as I've done previously just to pull out some highlights in terms of key items that may be of interest to members and then obviously hand over for comments and questions.
So walking people through the paper,
I think probably the first observation
that people will want to note and pass comment on
is around the position on patronage.
Members will note that there has been a notable decline
in the most recent quarter, Q2 of 8%.
That in itself is clearly a standalone course of concern,
but there are a number of explanations within the papers
to the reasons why that has occurred, some of which
are attributed to reduction in operated mileage, some environmental factors around things like
weather, various behaviour change initiatives and changes to fares as well.
So whilst we should be concerned, what is really important we do is maintain a close
watching brief on this particular issue, make sure that this is just a one -off and that
we've got some really clear and strong mitigating actions in collaboration with bus operators
moving forward to maintain a level of patronage as we move forward towards bus franchising.
Moving on from that particular point, there is some hopefully useful information around
Mayors' Fairs Impact Survey, so again members will note that we've had Mayors' Fairs in
place now since 2022.
You wanted to ask a question now?
Sorry.
We can wait till the end.
Okay.
Okay, so most will note that the Mayor's Fair scheme has been in place now since 2022.
Since the change in fare back in March of this year, we've done a further survey, which
is actually largely positive.
So again, it demonstrates the fact that there's a high level of awareness, high level of recognition
of the impact of the Mayor's Fair in terms of overall affordability, although there has
been a slight reduction in terms of the perception of affordability overall as a result of that
fair changes as I noted.
The research also sets out some changes in terms of the way
that people behave in terms of response,
and again, a reduction in terms of use
purely on the basis of that fair change as well.
Moving on through the paper, I shall move you
on to item 3 .26.
And again, this is an area that members
have taken interest and commented on in the past
around our ability to both produce and distribute timetables in a timely manner to bus stops.
You may recall that we've introduced some key performance indicators in this space,
in this financial year, making sure that we've got a really clear commitment to promise to
passengers in terms of how quickly changes to timetables are both produced and then distributed
out to them.
It's reassuring to see that in the most part, certainly for information on our website and
available to our bus stations, we are now on target in terms of being able to do those
things on or before the date of change taking place.
Where there is still more work to do,
and clearly we need to do make improvements in this space
still, is about our ability to distribute timetables out
to stops on street and making sure
that we get those done in a timely manner.
The report notes a current four -week delay in our ability
to do that work at the moment.
And I'm working closely with Mel and her team
in terms of our processes and efficiencies
that we can do to improve that particular performance.
Moving on, I shall briefly comment on punctuality and reliability.
We are, I think, actually in a relatively stable and strong place here.
We have seen incremental improvements in terms of punctuality going from 84 to 86 % in that
period and also a reduction from 1 .7 to 1 .4 % in terms of the numbers of cancelations.
Members will recall in the past quarters we've still been subject to some cancelations,
particularly due to a reaver and a reavers performance and ability to operate services reliably that has now
Improved substantially and is relatively steady state they are on par with other operators across the region now
But there is still improvements to be made because we'd still like them and indeed all operators to get to below 1 %
Like to draw attention to
service changes in 3 .33 3 .34
Again, probably just to highlight and indicate that we, as a CEO, oversee an almost continual
churn of changes that operators put forward.
And again, these have been done either in response to operators making changes to routes,
tweaking timetables to improve punctuality, or seeking to exploit new opportunities as
well.
So all of those are described and noted there.
The paper briefly discusses under 3 .38 our latest position on Access Bus.
and again just wanted to bring to members attention that we are in the
process of procuring an entirely new fleet for access bus services here in
West Yorkshire. A total of 33 busses will be procured and implemented subject to
approval obviously through the CA and then with a view to starting those
busses into operation from early next year. Last but not least the paper sets
out some information around our performance on bus stations and
transport assets. Again hopefully members will recognise there's an awful lot of work
taking place in this space both in terms of maintaining and repairing existing assets
that exist but also making significant capital investment into places like Heckman, Dike
and elsewhere too. So an awful lot of work taking place there to roll out a notable improvement
in our service standards.
Chair Ash will stop there. I'm happy to take questions from any members, thank you.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:11:36
Thank you very much I've got a plethora of hands going up so Councillor Pinnock
started so Councillor Pinnock first. Thank you chair I have two issues that I want to raise
Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council - 0:11:51
whilst I am very much in favour of the work that's being done at Heckandwike
there is another issue which which has caused residents in my ward quite a lot
of trouble, and that's to do with a bus lane,
between Oak and Shore and Chaimbar Roundabout.
And one of the issues that is continually raised by people
there is because of other works that
have been done at the roundabout,
busses are now not being held up by the roundabout traffic
queuing problems, which was allegedly
one of the reasons why the bus lane was put in in the first place. The work is being done
on the bus lane as we speak. But there's plenty of local people who will say it's not really
necessary and etcetera, etcetera. So I would like a proper audit of what the reasons behind
all of this including a road safety audit because there is still an issue
about busses having to get from the left -hand side of the road to the
right -hand side of the roundabout in order to get the right lane when they
come out the other side and there there is clearly at least to my mind an issue
about the safe operation of that manoeuvre.
The other thing I wanted to raise was to do with
the reliability tables and it does seem to me,
and I'm surprised nobody's raised this before,
but it doesn't, the routes that are talked about
in those tables don't often compare with each other
because sometimes they're very big routes
and sometimes they're very short routes
and I just wondered if there could be some observation as how how you how you
marry those two
features together
And and make make something that that that sounds at least logical. Thank you
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:14:01
Take a few questions together. It's got quite a few sir. Can I ask the Hutchison then council book click? Thank you chair. I
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 0:14:11
Continue to have concerns about Halifax bus depot. I know it falls within chance three
But it would appear that at least half the surface area of the depot has been sold off
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 0:14:26
and is not going to be available for certain providing depot services, particularly when
you consider the increased requirement for charging up of vehicles and hopefully restoring
the services that have been lost over the last couple of years from Calderdale and I
would like some more detailed discussions about the adequacy of the remaining site and
how that is going to be, whether that's going to be adequate for our needs.
Thank you. Councillor Buckley?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:15:00
Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council - 0:15:12
Thank you, Chair. I'd like to begin by welcoming 328 on page 9, the additional E -Ink units,
which is a slightly oddly named unit which helped the blind. And there are 74, apparently,
units going into shelters
but I'd like to know whether that's the end of the
Operation or whether there are some more to be done there
but the main point I wanted to make was about the
patronage figures which was mentioned earlier
Eight percent lower and
The year -on -year decline is is quite marked and I just wondered
what is going on here because it's going to come to the point, isn't it, when there's
going to be less revenue raised in order to improve the bus service.
And I'm just wondering whether women and girls, for instance, the lights are drawing in, of
course, dark nights, is there any evidence that they have stopped using busses because
of this?
or in other words what on earth is going on thank you chair so i think passion is just probably
something that we've all picked up on through the papers i would like us to have a bit of chat about
that and so but if if um we'll just pick up those points um i think council pinock your question
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:16:35
about the bus lane i think it's really a kirkley's council matter isn't it really it's not really a
west Yorkshire matter i don't know if councillor firth you want it to come in on that. Sorry the
Something the money has come from the I'm sure
It's managed by Kirkley's true. Can I get
Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council - 0:16:52
Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council) - 0:16:54
Thank you very much, thank you Andrew for your question on this
I mean
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 0:17:07
We've well established the need for the overall corridor scheme to prioritise public transport and I think those priorities have been
established and agreed both here and and and in Kirkley's
As part of a corridor scheme to benefit not just bus transport now
but future bus transport as we move into a world where we need to
Encourage and prioritise modal shift and this scheme is very well justified and I'm happy to have an offline conversation with you
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:17:29
Thank you very much can you can you just address the point about comparison of different routes indeed
No, I think you're referring to some of the content in the appendices
So it is a challenge.
We've tried through conversations here
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:17:40
and with members of the Bus Alliance
to get a balance of types of services
that both perform well and perform poorly
in terms of their reliability and punctuality.
Inevitably, not every service operates the same.
So you've got, as you say, lots of very short
and very long services and no great surprises.
A very short service from a punctuality point of view
has a greater opportunity to be on time
because it has less opportunity to be disrupted.
I'm happy to come back and re -look at the range of services that are included in there
in the top and the bottom.
And what we did want to do is to present a committee the entirety of the list because
clearly that would be overwhelming.
But it is really difficult to make direct life -for -life comparisons because even on
route length, the route length in one part of the region compared to another might be
different based on topography and, you know, relative rurality versus urban density as
well.
So it's a challenge that I accept, but I think we can do some more work to look at how we
best present it.
Thank you chair. Thank you and then something about Halifax bus depot and maybe something you want to take offline with
Councillor Hutchison because also some of that is commercial confidential, but
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:18:47
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:18:49
Yes, so it is an issue
which
we've
reviewed at the length as part of the
Depot strategy, so I'm aware that the team has challenged
itself from a risk perspective
and and is confident that the that the capacity that that we're able to bring
in is it is sufficient both in terms of handling day one operations but also
giving capacity to grow for what I'm happily asked the team to provide a
little bit more of a background briefing for you on that point and just good news
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:19:29
about e -ink which is very good. I can also say the bus shelter people who get those bus
shelters sorted out in four hours, they should be given more work to do like the timetable
re -change on those bus stops. Can't we give it to them? I mean they seem really good.
So I think there is something about looking at those two services. One is excellent and
one is not quite as excellent. There is and in terms of answering the question
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:19:52
are these the last of them, absolutely not. We do intend to roll this technology out when
we get life expired assets elsewhere as well. So we are starting as we mean to go on in
terms of that provision of information as well as improve the provision of the paper
timetables as well.
So patronage, the golden question, how do we increase patronage across the whole region?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:20:17
Because that's something that we're all keen to do and to get middles shifting. In a region
historically has very much relied on cars to get around and that obviously leads to
been in traffic for hours on end so we do need to get us all to use the busses more.
What is the answer?
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:20:36
So if we start with a little bit more background below the 8 % figure which came as quite a
shock to myself, Tim and senior colleagues when the data came in. So as you're aware
we've been spending quite some time, Councillor Carlo has been closely
involved as well in terms of looking to get underneath the data. There is
significant spatial differences across the conservation so beneath the 8 %
Here in the City of Leeds that period saw around a 6 % decrease.
In Wakefield we saw somewhere in the order of a 13 % decrease over that period.
So we've been challenging operators in terms of the performance data through that period.
we have seen something of a decline around reliability, the numbers of services operating
and we're challenging hard to understand the factors behind those. Generally those factors
relate to a combination of available drivers and available vehicles. So pressing the operators
very hard on that front. We think there may well be a number of other seasonal
factors, we're looking at a summer period, summer periods can be more susceptible
to variation where there's less of a traditional commuting period than
other times so we're going to be looking closely at the autumn data that we
received through this next quarter to establish whether we're starting to see
a meaningful trend here or whether we've seen a blip in performance. We've also
recently agreed to maintain our marketing campaign, the name which is
just for that moment, Ride It, Walk It Ride It, which also applies to a bus promotion
programme as well so we're going to look very closely at how we can target that
programme around bus travel and then of course we look ahead in the context of
bus franchising and I wonder chair whether actually it's timely for us
to bring some more information back to the committee just in terms of the work
programmes that are underway to prepare for bus franchising with franchise
services now in Tranche 1, 18 months away. Within that programme in particular
we are making sure that we've got the right data handling arrangements in
place and members will be aware that at times at the moment when we receive this
data and this data of course is captured through observations, we're still working
with partial data and so we're still looking to piece a full picture
together. Once franchising is in place we're in receipt of all data and
therefore we need to make sure that we've got the right systems in place
that mean that we can be tracking data not just on a quarterly basis but a
weekly and period basis as well. So I wonder whether it's worth us bringing
some more advice in on how we intend to do that so that we very much got our
finger on the pulse in the future.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:24:22
That would be very helpful. Of course other authorities across the country are saying we've already moved
franchising their patronage is going on as a result.
I wonder to Councillor Calle if you want it to come in on,
surely the network has got something to do with it as well.
I was gonna come in, I can touch on that point, yeah,
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council - 0:24:35
I mean, there's a number of issues in the report
that we pull out for seeing where this patronage might go.
It's no surprise really that Wakefield,
which has seen incredibly poor services
that have only just returned to a reliable operation,
has seen a decrease in confidence of people using the bus
and that's something we need to work on.
We've also got 3 % fewer services than there were previously,
and I think it would be really useful to tie that up
so that we have that understanding of,
as we seek to return services,
what can we expect to see in certain areas?
And we've got some of that on the B -SIP.
The one point I want to come into mainly was
just that reminder that when the assessment
was taken around franchising,
it showed that a decline in the patronage
and the revenue for bus would continue
under private operations as it has done since the mid 80s.
We've seen a decline in many years.
Now this has been more pronounced this year
and that's why we want to delve into the detail.
But what the assessment showed was
that by taking public control of the network,
we would help to mitigate and turn around
that continual decline that unfortunately we've seen.
And as you said, Chair,
in areas where they have already taken control
of the network, they have been able
to see that switch around.
Thank you very much.
So I've now got cancer Davis Courtney crook with clocking if it's anybody ever miss any of that council
What councilman joins coming now to the weight field point?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:26:00
It was just on the way to a point in one respect to see the decline is no
Cllr Matthew Morley - 0:26:04
Surprise to me when I think about it seeing living in the Wakefield
District but this to me is the biggest argument for franchising as well. We've seen over dish over areas with fresh franchising in
Patries has started to go up not decline
So if we don't do it, I'm glad we are where we're going to end up with no bus services at all. So
Welcome this. Thank you for the interventions you are put in place in Wakefield
But yeah, it doesn't come in more than a surprise
Thank you
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:26:33
Councillor Davis
Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council - 0:26:42
Thanks chair. Um, it's just a question about bus stop accessibility improvements. We were told about this about seven months ago
I just wondered if there's been any progress mix. It seems to come quiet. Thanks
Thank You cancer caught
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:26:49
Yes, thank you, yeah, I mean as we've said a decline in reduction if there's a decline of reduction in services
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:26:59
It's not surprising that there's a decline in in bus patronage to a certain extent and that is quite frustrating
and obviously the question is how do we get people on to public transport and hoping that the you know,
The franchising will deliver that and the implementation of GB railways and having better into modal integration will also be really positive
But just going back to that frequency, even in the report, the customer service, the customer
report, which is in 3 .11, although that's talking about mayors fairs, actually 32 % of
people who don't use busses said that reliability and frequency are key factors that would get
them back onto the busses.
So I think that is getting the services but levels back up is good
The other thing though that I wanted to say that obviously the bus primarily talks about bus lanes already
But bus priority infrastructure improvements
I think should also help that and I so I think that there's lots of things that we can do in our local authorities to
Help some of these things as well as reducing congestion and stuff. So, thank you
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:28:04
So vote for bus lanes there for a council pinik
Councillor crook
Thanks so much chair and probably just to illustrate the positive investment to grow
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 0:28:15
our bus patronage in the future I wanted to quickly note the positive progress on Heckman
Dwight bus station which is well underway.
Had a lovely visit there with the Mayor and along with Councillor Firth and some school
children recently.
The project is very positive it will be the first Weaver branded bus station and on track
for completion in spring so that will help with bus patronage.
And a fantastic investment into Heckman Dwight into that community and much needed thanks
to committee for supporting them. Thank you very much, yes it looks great. Lovely, I love
the pictures of that. Councillor Cloughlin. Thank you chair. Yeah I'd first like to concur
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:28:49
with what my colleagues have said. Turns out if you cut bus services and run them really
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 0:28:54
badly people don't use them. Funny that. And Matthew, Councillor Moly's absolutely right,
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 0:29:01
it is the best argument we could possibly hope for for franchising going forward. The
report we have figures for Wakefield, Calderdale and Leeds but we don't have
Bradford and Cleese so could we could we please have those because I don't think
it's any coincidence that we've seen the highest percentages in the area where
bus services have been cut back the most by the operators. And just a second point
on the appendix, thank you for the inclusion of the extra data on the the
five best and the ten worst services in the in the district it's really in the
County rather it's very interesting and the reason we put this in was to learn lessons about
How do you get the best bus services and what causes the worst bus services?
And what we've learnt is that if you want the really good bus services you live in Keithley
But we've also learned is that
By far and away the biggest single cause for the worst performing services is roadworks
So what lessons are we learning from from this revelation?
particularly as we go forward to Weaver, how are we planning to better engage with and mitigate this disruption?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:30:09
Absolutely, that goes back to what we can all do as local authorities work together in a franchise world really.
And yes, you've got a Keighley councillor next year and one on the table, I'm sure they will concur with you at Keighley, it's the best place of busses.
So a few questions there, starting with Councillor Davies about accessibility.
Accessibility. Yeah, so apologies for any delays on this
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:30:30
Well, I think I proposed to do is to I'll write you in person and give you an update in terms of latest progress
And we can include something in the next report chair if that's okay
That's fine. Thank you very much
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:30:37
And I think council Courtney you
Comment really a council crook again. I can't look often. There's some the questions then
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:30:47
Yeah, I don't have the the figures for buff and curlies back and again
I can happily send them over an email and we make sure they're included in next report as well
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:30:55
Thank you. Any further questions on this before we move on to the rail? Can I just
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:31:01
make a very quick comment chair on the part about roadworks. Members may know that we're
implementing a control centre as part of bus franchising so that will be a single
place by which we control all the highway activity in partnership as you
say with local authority partners and allow us to much better plan and
coordinate that activity to minimise disruption both in terms of proactive
but reactive as well so if there is a burst water main for example we can
that much better with that environment in place so that's a key and central part of our plans for bus franchising.
Councillor Carroll.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council - 0:31:35
Yeah very briefly on that I did just want to point out on that point about roadworks one of the services that is performing incredibly well on these even though it is some length is the X6 between Leeds and Bradford.
Now that's an express service which helps but also that's a corridor that has had
Significant investment in bus priority and it has bus priority all the way into the centre of Leeds
Which most of the other services going into Leeds don't have which does show that although that disruption with the roadworks doesn't necessarily help
Providing that that bus priority does help long term and that's a scheme that I think busses on that sort of 30 % increase in patronage
when that's
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:32:11
bus lanes, cycle lanes, just making sure people get around easily, it will make it easy for
people to get out of the car. Okay, lovely, well thank you very much, useful information

6 Transport Operations - Rail

there, thank you. Moving on now to rail, where actually conversely there's been a battery
damage increase by the looks of it. Yes, I'll cover off the rail quite briefly at high level
over the report. What we've tried to do in this report is slim it down from where it
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:32:34
usually is, but obviously as a consequence of that there's still a thirst for information
So we do have three appendices which hopefully set out more detail behind what I'm going to talk about here
Firstly as council Hinchliffe said there
strong growth from Northern Rail
9 .5 % year on year and the commute travel up 13 % that reflects the more office the greatest trend towards
Return to office office working and leisure group
Let it let you grow force work about 5 % and northern done some some strong campaigns around that which is which seems to have paid off
Similarly, Trans -Pentane Express, 5 % growth, I think that reflects the stabilisation of
services.
You know, we had the issues in the last year or more where services had to be pulled back
while rectification measures were done.
Certainly seems to have recovered out of that dip now.
And LNER star performers, as we said before at these meetings, in terms of 26 % growth,
which is quite significant.
And in terms of Leeds, while Leeds station
Football has not yet returned on average day weekday to pre -pandemic level
We're now up to 79 % and I think that's evidence barely when it comes through comes through during the day
But certainly the weekends exceeding pre -pandemic levels a strong strong leisure travel of about 105 %
moving on to
service changes
And three point seven report. This is one where we've set them out in appendix one, which is page 51 or 52 of your papers
Just a flag as a slight change what was reported in there about the Bradford to lead service stopping at Shipley
Now the LNER services were going to stop additionally at Shipley as part of London to Bradford services
Have not had it have yet again been delayed in terms of implementation
This time it's by something which I don't understand but it's a technical issue on the azuma fleet
to do with our computer software.
A firm date's been awaited, possibly December timetable,
but it could be longer.
Having said that, the platforms are already signed off,
which is one of the things we had
originally been waiting for.
So I believe that will come forward in due course
as soon as the challenges have been resolved there.
In terms of rail network performance set out in 3 .8 to 3 .15,
there's quite a bit of detail set out there
appendix to and
We also we also address the query of images raised at previous Transport Committee around what's called the P coding which is the coding of
Sorry about the reporting of P coding and time to three in time to 15
so that's around how much trains are delayed and that that explains why
The rail operators are using the t3 as the most effective means of reporting those
but again happy to happy to come back and
and relook at that if we need to.
In terms of cancelations, Northern have a lower level
of cancelations at 3 .8 % and TPE at 5 .2%.
Things are operating well generally in terms of the time
to threes with Northern at slightly down at 78 .4
and TPE at a very similar level to where they were before
at about 67 .9%.
In terms of this time to three performance,
LNER have a similar performance to TPE.
Cross country trains are the area where there's been a significant drop off at 46 .2%.
I think I'd like to get a little more under the skin of,
I suspect that's due to them being longer services generally
and longer services do generally tend to bring in more delays.
Passenger network enhancements in the report, we set out in 3 .16 to 3 .23.
A key area we're flagging is the transparent route upgrade blockade of Huddersfield, where
there was a 30 day closure recently.
That has gone off generally very well, it's regarding the rail industry, with a lot less
issues than anyone had been anticipating.
I think a lot of credit must go to the TRU team and the rail industry for the way that
was planned, handled, and the level
of proactive and reactive measures
that were put in place at very short notice to do that.
What I found interesting out of this as well, only this week,
I know we as a combined authority have been pushing,
and we're pushing TRU to ensure that we keep as many people
on public transport as possible during this blockade.
And it was really, really pleasing to see
that actually demand levels were maintained
during this period, which I think was quite not just
impressive. I found quite staggering that rail demand and rail slash bus demand was
maintained during that period. So we had a member, a TRU member working group a couple
of days ago where we got quite a lot of really useful information around how the TRU blockades
have been going and what's coming in the future and around lessons learnt. In particular,
they're going to be directly applied to the next blockades, which the big one that's coming
in the Church Fencing area over Christmas in January,
which will significantly affect services at certain times
between Leeds, York, and Hull.
Sometimes, in fact, there may be no trains
between Leeds and York.
So I think the fact that they've been through this
in Huddersfield, while there will be disruption,
does bode well for the future blockades,
of which there are significant numbers coming forward
over the next year.
And I think we will continue to plug those
and talk about those and raise awareness of those
through these through these forums. Meanwhile on TRU,
Department for Transport has formally approved the closure
of Ravensthorpe Station as part of the upgrade from the
thirteenth of December through to summer twenty twenty -eight.
There'll be a new a rebuild of the station a couple hundred
metres from where it's at and that will be reoriented to
serve Dewsbury Riverside with its 4 ,000 houses. So, there
will be a positive at the end of this going back to the
point around traffic disruption and breaking eggs and all that kind of thing that goes
with it.
In terms of projects, a very brief overview has been given in Appendix 3 around White
Rose, Tompanton and Pontefract.
I'll elaborate slightly on a couple of those here.
On White Rose, work does continue to resolve complex legacy issues relating to the halting
of activity.
We have a remobilisation strategy which is in development which will allow clear timescales
to be developed and we'll be bringing an update to the combined authority and that will include
the role of scrutiny which we have looking at the project and lessons learnt we'll be
bringing into play.
So things are moving on white roads but it has been challenging.
In terms of Todmorden, this is the accessibility scheme at Todmorden which local members will
be aware has not moved at the pace that was anticipated.
We have been working very closely with the rail industry to ensure that this is delivered as efficiently and quickly as possible
And we now have a clearer way forward on this than we did back in July when I know members were expressing concerns around that
And again, we're we're happy to give some local briefings on that as we as we have a little bit more information that we did
We can do this outside this meeting as needed in terms of Pontefracta. You'll also be where there was some
significant challenges around delivery of the project following the funding that Northern had and
they had to cast off their contractors and then we had to look at the new mechanism for
delivering the project.
We have worked very, very closely and the Mayor in particular has worked very closely
to secure some funding through what's called the DFTO, which is the Department for Transport
Operating Company, which oversees the rail franchises and this will now allow the accessibility
scheme to progress.
Having said that, there's still more work to be done through looking at the contracting
approach and we will come back with an update following further meetings with the rail industry,
but a lot more positive by a long way than it was three months ago around Pontifract
and the accessibility scheme there.
While on the subject of improvements and good news in a way, it's definitely worth flagging
the train naming ceremony and the special train wrap launch that was held at the end
of September in Castleford for Rob Burrow, which
was very well attended by public, by politicians,
by the family as well, and lots of other people
in the rail industry.
A very heartwarming event that was and well received.
Finally, I'll just touch on rail reform,
which is 324 to 328.
And again, we have done some work with combined authority
members around rail reform to try to bring them up to speed
with where the process is up to and sort of scratch beneath the surface a bit more.
We're at the high level, it's worth flagging that significant engagement has been taking place
and will continue to do so with Great British Railways, regional and national partners.
It's very important we see that the rail positions we come up with around rail reform
will align with mass transit and bus reform, particularly around things like branding and ticketing,
so joining up the dots is key for us.
We're now, work now is centring around defining the future shape of the railway, including
what statutory powers the Mayor will have as part of a new rail industry sort of structure.
And as I said, we've been keeping Transport Committee up to date with that.
We will be commissioning some wider activities to support us to build on our existing body
of knowledge.
So while all this will take time, we're not standing still and we'll be mapping out with
the rail industry and we are mapping out with the rail industry to identify interventions
and measures over the next three years in areas of integration services and investment
to make sure that we can continue to enhance and improve the railway and its operation.
So on that point I will pass back to the chair for questions.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:42:36
Thank you Dave for that. So a few things. Firstly, I personally worked quite hard to
make sure those platforms were ready at Shipley for the 25th of October and they were because
I made sure they were. So to find out the rolling stock is now available is particularly
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:42:57
frustrating so how do we resolve that quickly? I think we are working as closely as we can.
It is out of our hands this is all to do with the technology on the fleet. We're getting
weekly updates from L and ER on this and I'll continue to update you on this. So I need
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:43:08
to know the detail behind that and I will go and find out what's going wrong and sort
it out myself that's okay because it is so beneficial having that investment
shipley and all the additional trains from London that we need to make sure
the whole district feels a benefit of that so let's get on to that and it
obviously there's good news in here about rail patronage going up I suppose
could some of that be to the detriment of the busses I suppose is my question
sorry mr. final could some of that be of deterrence the bus Patrick's bus
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:43:41
pressure has gone down is there any correlation I'm not sure if there's any
correlation I think we might have to look at when we get some of the
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:43:48
perception surveys coming out to see whether there is a move in that direction
I've not heard anything around that but we will we will look into that thank you
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:43:58
councillor Morley yeah thank you chair and thank you very much for the update
on Ponzi frat this seems to be a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel
Cllr Matthew Morley - 0:44:07
now. I thank everybody for the work that they're doing on that but I would appreciate an update
as soon as possible especially for the elected members of Pontifract who have put a lot of
time and effort into that and also the local MP who I know is taking a particular interest.
So I do thank you for the work you've taken on that already. And at three point three two three
point the Rob Buckrow's name ceremony just once again it was raised initially at this committee
Early on this year and I thank the officers the mayor yourself
also
self Eric
The also members the committee for supporting us on that because it was a truly great day to see his family all their support
And that his children in the cab of the the train and it's been seen all over at the north of England now
So it's a great testament to rob that so I thank the committee for all their support on it
Thank You councillor Morley
Councillor Hutchinson.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:45:01
Thank you, Chair.
Over the last year,
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 0:45:06
Calderdale's planning committee has given planning permission
for some quite extensive housing developments in Elland.
And these were factored into the business case
for Elland Station and into the local plan in Calderdale.
And I was just seeking assurance as to where Elland Station
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 0:45:32
and the associated access package is in the current pipeline of projects.
Thank you very much. Councillor Cawton.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:45:43
Thank you. It's great to hear that rail patronage is up.
It was interesting to note that summer weekends were particularly successful in the Coler
Peace Hall in their summer concerts,
which are obviously sort of going on.
And a lot of those, I mean, they are during the week
as well, but at weekends.
And I just think that if there is any correlation
between those, that's a really good example
of how everything, how all the different bits fit together.
You know, the sort of regeneration in the economy
and transport and how important that is in that.
So I think it's regeneration in action, isn't it?
It's really interesting.
And I'd also wanted to mention the cold of Ali
line Community Rail partnership
Which our council supports and along with Rochdale Council and that's the other side of the pen lines
But we've been that but they've been very active in promoting travel on the cold of Ali line
And it would be great to see some of these benefits extended
Possibly to other stations on the cold of Ali line that go into the combined
Authority so I know that Greater Manchester
Transport Authority do support them a little bit as well
So maybe we could look at how this this transport, you know
The the combined authority and its transport function could support the community rail partnership both on the cold value line
But maybe another lines within the authority as well because some of the benefits they bring in terms of economic benefit as well
It's you know, not just patronage but actually other associated benefits is really positive and I think on this the same line
I know we haven't got the train operators here today
but my asks are train operators would be around working
with community groups, working with the business forums,
for example, like in, I know it's
a very sort of hyperlocal example,
but in Mytham Lloyd, which has got a massive, great big car
park and never really very many cars there.
It was used very successfully for a park and ride
last year for Christmas markets in Hebden Bridge.
And just bolstering that sort of work, community work, again,
it affects economic growth within our towns
across the combined authority and that's you know we're all looking to promote economic growth.
And just finally I would like to say that I would really welcome to have a local briefing about the
Tomoden access station. It's really good to hear that solutions are coming forward. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Councillor Buckley.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:48:12
Thank you chair. I wonder if I could just refer to
Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council - 0:48:15
at White Rail Station because it does say here at 320,
progress continues on White Rail Station.
And I realised that progress is continuing
as far as officers are concerned
because they're talking about it.
Or I think I heard it right, re -verbalisation.
I've not heard that one before.
But nevertheless, nevertheless,
The public don't see any progress at all. All the all they see is an abandoned station
so I
Realise that certain things are confidential obviously
But given that the original completion was January 27
Can anybody say anything about when the eventual completion will be?
Thank you and cancer Davis
Thank you.
Just a quick one on Grand Central.
Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council - 0:49:16
Their reliability figures seem to have slumped and the numbers cancelled seem to have gone
up quite a lot between May and June and July and August.
I just wondered maybe why that was and if there's any way of reversing that and getting
it back to a better standard.
Thank you.
So good range of questions there, Dave.
Do you want to start with Ellen's station, I suppose?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:49:37
I'll work through the ones I've got on my, written down here, let's have a look.
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:49:42
I've got Councillor Morley in terms of Pontefract updates.
Certainly, yeah, we can do that. I think we've got something scheduled in Derry but you probably want something sooner than that to go through.
We are still waiting on some information but as soon as I've got something which makes it meaningful, I recognise a lack of communication doesn't, yeah, doesn't necessarily mean nothing's happening.
things things happening there I think in terms of the the the Ellen Ellen station
and noted by council Hutchinson around the housing development a lot of work
has been going on around the development of the station as you know in the access
package that's currently due to be coming forward early January February
our current member in the new year for full approval that's been considered
through as part of the wider capital programme that's been looked at at the
but we are on track at the moment to bring that forward.
There doesn't seem to be anything holding that up
at the moment, that's my awareness.
Councillor Courtney's point, I think,
around the Summer Concerts and Peace Hall,
I think is a bit of a wider point, really, for me around,
I know Northern and TP have been working very hard
and innovatively around promotional measures for rail,
and as I said, as you can see,
the growth and leisure journeys is significantly picking up.
I think there's certainly a piece that,
well, we can certainly look into the numbers
to see whether what kind of additional traffic
is being carried on those days of concerts.
I think that'll be quite revealing in itself,
because I'd imagine there are some significant numbers there.
But I think, I know Northern Rail are looking at
whether they can do more around evening services in general
to, for the nighttime economy.
That's not a quick fix, but it's something they are aware of.
There's something to go out there in terms of the market
That does exist. I think the point around community partnerships and forums again
I know the rail operators are very active in that space and anything more than that
We would certainly welcome and indeed the briefing on top of them
We can do that as well on the Grand Central point
I will need to look into the numbers that they I did look at that earlier
No, I didn't get a chance to ask questions. What what's that behind that to bring to the meeting here today?
But we will we will come back on that in terms of White Rose station
I passed across to Simon Walton to say a couple more words there. That's okay
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:52:05
Thank you, Dave. And so quite rightly councillor Buckley raises the
White Rose has taken some time to bring to a conclusion we would
clearly
What were this a project of our own management as the combined authority?
We would be bringing forward more into the public domain. Of course the the reality of the white rose project is
that it was a
project that was
instigated and managed by a private sector partner
And therefore we aren't at liberty to divulge
the contractual arrangements between the private sector developer
And their contractors. However, we've been
Dave in particular has been working
very closely
with the developer with Network Rail
To
to safeguard the combined authorities
investment in the in the project and to
to offer up our capacity
as a project
delivery body to look to bring the scheme to a conclusion. We think subject
to a small number of remaining legal matters that we are approaching a point
now where we're going to be able to bring a proposed recovery plan to the
that we can have reached the right point with third parties such that I can put that on
the table for the December meeting of the combined authority.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:53:54
And community rail partnerships, and we do put money into community bus partnerships,
don't we?
So presumably the same thing would apply to community rail, I don't know, but.
It didn't go in the microphone saying that, I think that was a yes.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:54:09
Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the report. I would like to start by saying thank you
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 0:54:18
for including the P coding in the appendix. I've been asking for a while and it's finally
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 0:54:23
there so thank you very much. Moving on to the TRU. Just on point 3 .18, it talks about
the closure of Ravensthorpe station and the rebuilding which will start December this
Finished summer 27, but it does say that the rail replacement bus will only operate until May 26
Which is a year and a bit short
So I wonder if that is an oversight or a mistake
And can we just have a bit of reassurance that we will get replacement services for the entire closure period but also
Just to pick up on something that Dave said in the report the the closure the blockade of Huddersfield
By and large considering the challenge was a remarkable success
success by the TIU. They were mightily impressive with how they handled the sheer volume of
disruption. The extensive works that happened at Brig House were no small thing and they
happened in record time. And the staff at the stations I had it reported to me were
absolutely lovely and couldn't do more to help everybody. So they deserve a massive
thank you for that. And I spoke to them, we spoke to them yesterday at the TIU working
group online. A few teething problems about signage and some inconsistencies around bus
operators in smaller local stations, but overall they deserve a great big thumbs up. So thank you.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:55:40
It's important to say well done isn't it because this is an industry fraught with challenges
but I think Councillor Firth you'd agree that the transfer and upgrade is
fingers -cross going well so far.
Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council) - 0:55:55
Yes, yeah, yesterday's meeting was illuminating to say the least. I think the network rail
officers went through every single thread to the needle, going back from as far as Church Fenton to Staley Bridge.
Everything is superb, their operations are streamlined, they are really doing a good job.
They illustrated about the blockage and they told us about the future blockages, particularly in Huddersfield,
and that's going to be another month blockade, back in the year.
And I can only congratulate them for all the work they're doing.
They're absolutely fantastic.
On the signage, by the way, I did mention this to Michael, if you like.
Councillor McLachlan.
That the signs keep disappearing for some of the smaller places like Marsden.
And I won't be surprised if they finish up on the antique roadshow in a year or two of time.
Because they keep continually replacing them.
Going back to my friend, you mentioned the celebration regarding the unveiling of the new train, the branded train for Rob Burrows.
You missed working councils off in 323 because the leader and deputy leader were there, also the Member of Parliament.
She was there too.
But can I congratulate Richard Isaac
from on behalf of this committee?
When it was first raised by Matthew all that time ago,
Matthew didn't know that I were talking to Richard
constantly about making this possible.
And we all berate the operators when they arrive.
You know, we do take that opportunity.
But in this instance, I think I'd like to congratulate
And record
Richard
Thank you, and thank you David for a very very comprehensive report
Thank You councillor first and just a bit of reassurance thing on the replacement I believe it's going to continue
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:58:14
What I can say, it is deliberate when it says May 26, but that's not necessarily a cause
for concern.
Dave Haskins, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:58:20
The issue they have at Ravensthorpe is it has been a lightly used station and there
have also been some challenges around how you get busses in and out of that area.
But I think this aligns with the approach taken by the TRU team, which is let's see
how it goes and then see what we need to do at that point in time.
They haven't ruled out because it will be there, they haven't ruled out, it won't be there, but they're saying if there's a need they will serve it.
There is a view that some of the people who use the station may just use local busses because they probably have to come past the local busses to walk to get to the station anyway.
So it's a kind of, it's a live issue that they'll be dealing with over time and work out what the best way of dealing with it is overall.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 0:59:04
So prioritising rail passengers needs I think and just they will make sure they can actually get to where they need to get something
So I'm not see
Councillor
Thank you, thank you chair as a big house councillor
Cllr Howard Blagbrough Calderdale Council - 0:59:18
We actually benefited from an increased a footfall and it's an absolute wonderful place
I call it the sense of the universe because actually we've got a lot of development and this morning
We had a we went see the new market. So we had a lot of
exchanges coming to Bookehouse and actually shops in the in the town as well. So it was beneficial to us.
Cllr Tony McGrath, Kirklees Council - 0:59:46
Just a quick one to sort of echo what what you said about the Transatlantic upgrade.
I mean not only have they done a great job and closed within the time you said and everything was
delivered as they should, they've also got involved in the local community, created jobs, worked with our local college, worked with our local football team.
So it's been absolutely awesome to see them benefit our town as a whole whilst also disturbing it by closing the station
They've also really got involved and I felt that's helped mitigate the closure on the basis that there's so many jobs so many opportunities
And obviously people love it when they're people get involved with the football team. I think they're an official partner now this year
but going back to
just a question and
trans Pennine, sorry the
Peniston line goes through my water phone Valley North it was mentioned in the last meeting I believe that an additional train was running now
It's great to hear more trains are running on that but when are we gonna see two trains an hour?
It's always in the pipeline. It's in the strategy. It's mentioned. But when are we gonna see it? Is there a date? Is there a plan?
Thank you
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:00:53
Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council) - 1:01:00
I discussed yesterday with Councillor Crook and I'm sure we'll be delighted to tell them
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:01:12
about the plans for the Peniston line. Is now the time or are we waiting for a more
auspicious time? I think probably we'll wait for a more auspicious time but I'd like to
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 1:01:21
Thank Tony for bringing up the pedestal line. It's important. We keep it on the table for every possible opportunity to trains per hour
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:01:28
Yeah, we're on it. We're not auspicious enough. I'm afraid we need to work on our spaciousness
Fine any further questions before we move on to the next item council quickly?
So just very quickly just while we're talking about frequency on train lines as well
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:01:42
My colleague council Hutchinson earlier mentioned Ellen station and just sort of in just want to keep it on the train operators
in their minds really that in the future when we've got the housing in place and we've got
the station open to be both Elland and Brickhouse would really benefit with having a more frequent
services going through there and because at the moment from Halifax for example I think
it's only like one train an hour or so and I think again you know if we want to for those
we want to get people out of their cars in onto public transport increased frequency
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:02:20
on that line needs to be planned well in advance. Thank you. Thank you. I'll take that as a
comment. Lovely, thank you very much. It does strike me actually that the Transpa9 upgrade,
they would do well to tell other infrastructure companies how they're doing this because there
are other infrastructure companies operating in the region who will not be named who could
learn a lot from an organisation which as you say takes community seriously, works with
the community thinks about what it's going to need next whilst it provides
disruption and I think there's a lot of learning for other companies there and
we should probably bottle that and export it for other organisations. I'm
happy to prep those people to come and listen to it. Hopefully that will
Cllr Eric Firth, Deputy Chair (Kirklees Council) - 1:03:04
continue with the not work into the far future because this project is not going
to be finished till 2034 I believe as far as Stirling Bridge and I know with the
and I and colleagues have discussed it and met representations whether they've been
listened to or not to keep that 5 ,000 people together and just turn sideways
and do the same to the Calderdale line that will be brilliant yeah I'm sure you agree.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:03:30
Well to the Bradford Huddersfield as well at the same time I have to say.
So we've lots of rail ambitions and I'm sure we can all be fulfilled if we just keep them in West Yorkshire
these people and don't let them go anywhere else. Right so with that again
it is an update so we don't need to vote on that paper but moving on to the item

7 Mayor's Fares and Network Enhancements

number seven then which is Mayors Fairs updates. Now Tim is that you? It is chair thank you.
Yeah so hopefully again members will have time to read this paper. This is
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:04:01
really a paper seeking support and endorsement from this committee in terms
of our approach to managing fares into the near future.
So members will recall and recognise
that Mayors' Fare scheme has been in place now
for a number of years and was launched back in September 2022
and has been subsidising both singles and day
tickets for all of that period of time through to today.
We've derived an awful lot of benefit
from having that scheme in place.
Around 83 million journeys in total
have been benefited from this scheme.
And again, it is good to see that the network has been making use of that and it would be
of concern to see the amount of damage that not having this scheme in place would have
created without such a fair scheme supported through BISIP funding.
Members will also note that there's a national scheme in place that came after our local
scheme here in West Yorkshire and that national scheme has changed and morphed over time and
has been extended a number of times, most recently as part of the spending review back
in June from government.
And the original scheme, the national scheme that is, was due to end in December of this
year.
And again, we aligned our scheme to end at the same time in anticipation of that taking
place.
So with the extension to the national scheme and clearly with franchising approaching rapidly
here in West Yorkshire, we are seeking to manage as best we can the continuation both
of the existing scheme and maintaining affordability for passengers here in
West Yorkshire. Typically what we do each year is to allocate a known proportion
of our BSIP programme each year to provide that funding for the Mayor's
Fair scheme. We're not able to do that at the moment because we haven't yet had
the final confirmation of over integrated settlement here in West
Yorkshire and hence really the existence of this paper is to just to seek support
from members that we provide a short -term extension to allow that
funding to be confirmed and then with a full term view of a plan towards the end
of this year or certainly into early next year at the very latest to give us
a transition that takes us all the way through to bus franchising. This paper is
also quite timely because the next item on the agenda people will notice around
our fares ticketing and retail strategy and very much you know what we do on
mares fares shapes and gives an understanding to what we
might want to do to fares under a franchise network in future.
So this is just seeking, as I say,
chair support from members in terms of our approach here.
Members will note that the proposal
is to take some funding away from our network enhancements
allocation within BSEP.
I want to assure members that will not
have any detrimental effect on the existing network that
exists today and allows us to continue
to protect the services that we're using BSEP funding for.
So again, I shall stop there, Mayor,
in the interest of time.
I'm happy to take questions in terms of the asks of the paper.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:06:55
And indeed, obviously, the next paper
is very much about the long term.
And I do want us to get onto that discussion, actually,
because that's about how we inform the combined authority
when it comes to setting fares for the future, what
price our fares are going to be.
And because this money has been so short term,
it's very difficult for us to plan here, isn't it?
And we do need to do that planning,
because we know where we're heading with franchising it.
and obviously we need to figure out how we get there with the right fares for the right groups of people.
So I don't know, comments, questions? I bring Councillor Carlolan as well on this item.
Councillor Hutchinson, then Councillor Carlolan.
Thank you, Chair. It's about the table in Appendix 1, which I've struggled with trying to understand.
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 1:07:44
And I think it's probably because the boxes are not clearly labelled, but it seems as if
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 1:07:54
the 4 million that's being reduced from network enhancements all falls on tranche 2 and 3.
So I'm not sure if there's a way of displaying it more clearly, because there's two minus
four millions and one plus four million. So I think I think this may be just
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 1:08:15
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:08:19
presentational the the ask is a single four million of which as part of our
approvals process is allocated to what's called tranche two and tranche three.
That's part of our assurance process that we have to go through here the
combined authority. To some extent it is irrelevant we don't we no longer
consider these funding elements in individual tranches and DFT have allowed
to relax the rules in our approach to treating a treatment of this funding so
this this table is really a lift and shift of what will go through the
assurance and back to the department but again from members points of view I
would suggest you concern yourself with that detail. So a presentational issue it
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:08:56
does add up Councillor Hutchison. So no further questions I'll go to Councillor
Carlisle for this. Yeah I mean I think the most important point is coming on to the
next paper which is around what we do from fares from from from now on this is
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council - 1:09:09
short -term fix that we have to put in place because obviously we need to
notify bus companies about what the fares will be in in no short order.
Hopefully very soon we'll find out what the funding agreement is for next year
and how much funding we'll get as West Yorkshire and then we can have a better
conversation about how to spend that. But yeah I think one of the struggles that
we've been in and we've been here before several times is trying to work out what
funding we have to enhance services. One of the issues is as soon as you enhance
services once, you obviously have to pay for them for all of the years after that.
So we're struggling at the moment to enhance and provide money into the
network to improve services without knowing one, what services may be cut by
operators that we might otherwise have wanted to pay for, and two, how much
money have we got going forward in order to keep their services going.
Obviously franchising solves that problem by giving us control over the
entire network rather than just small amounts of it, so that's why we're looking forward to.
I just wanted to ask about this four million pounds transfer. It's a lot of money and I
Cllr Neil Buckley Leeds City Council - 1:10:16
just wondered how has that figure been arrived at and secondly reliability is said to be
the most important factor in bus patronage. Well surely taking four million away from
the bus service improvement plan must have an effect on that situation, doesn't it?
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council - 1:10:45
Not really on that because at the moment we may pay for services to run. Where we pay
entirely for a service they're under contract with the combined authority and we can take,
we have requirements in there based around the punctuality of that service. If a service
is cancelled we don't pay for it, so if a service that we pay for doesn't run the eight
o 'clock from wherever to wherever then we won't pay for it. If a service is run
by a commercial operator at present then it's up to them to make sure that runs
reliably and the correct person to take that formally through the channels is
the traffic commissioner. We would rather be in a place where every single service
was contracted and have those higher level requirements they have to make for
reliability and punctuality to us directly to deal with those services. So
At the moment this funding is going into paying for whether services happen or not
It isn't really going into paying for whether services are reliable or not, which is for the operator to
bring forward
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:11:52
We have a forecast of how we generate individual payments to each operator
their commercial incompetence, but each operator has a rate of payment and it's based on the
formula.
We come to commercial agreements with them every year.
It's an annual process that we go through.
We have forecast patronage, so we anticipate how many types of tickets will be sold on
an annual basis, and then we've just made allowances on the basis of effectively volume
times price to come up with these numbers.
Thank you very much.
Any further questions before we get onto the next paper about ticketing strategy?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:12:24
No, in that case I'm happy to propose the recommendations outlined in 2 .123 there
Councillor Carla will second that. All those in favour please show. Thank you very much that is carried.

8 The Weaver Network Fares, Ticketing and Retail Strategy

So moving on then to the Weaver Network fares ticketing and retail strategy. This is one thing that we obviously have this is our first opportunity to input into this but I think the committee would probably like further input as we go forward because it is quite a crucial
engine room of franchising into the future. So who's speaking on this?
Brilliant, thank you chair. So this report sets out for discussion key points
concerning development of affairs, ticketing and retail strategy for the
Weaver network. It sets out a vision for an integrated multi -operator, multi -modal
offer that provides customers simple and affordable affairs with different ways
to pay to suit their personal travel needs. Aligned to the emerging mayor's
local transport plan. The strategy is needed now to guide development of a
fares and ticketing offer over the next 10 years of transformation as we work to
deliver the Weaver network. First in the short term as we transition to bus
franchising this will see the combined authority take responsibility for
setting fares and tickets and managing bus farebox revenue in a move away from
the current system which is led by private operators. It will also guide us
in the medium and longer term through rail reform, the development of a new mass
transit system, as well as the potential addition of forms of micro -mobility to the Weaver network,
such as e -bikes and inevitable technology changes as well.
Firstly, I'd like to draw your attention to the proposed strategic objectives at 3 .8.
Presenting to the Committee's endorsement, these draw on current customer challenges
as well as strategic direction provided by existing policy documents.
The proposed objectives are to create an understandable, consistent and simple offer, facilitate transport
integration and maximise regional connectivity, ensure affordability and equity of travel
costs, support equal access to opportunity for all.
It also includes more generally encouraging greater use of public transport and finally
establishing a financially sustainable offer.
It is proposed to complement these objectives with some commercial success factors, which
recognise that fares revenue will play an important role in funding network operations.
As such, we will need to continue growing the market and manage risks, especially as
the combined authorities' level of control over total offer and customer experience continues
to evolve.
3 .14 sets out in a bit more detail a proposed customer proposition, including an integrated
mobile ticketing and journey planning app and ambitions for contactless pay -as -you -go
travel across all public services. Cash payments and smart cards will also stay
as part of the offer to support inclusivity for all passengers. The report
updates that work is now underway to model the demand and revenue impacts of
different fares and tickets. It is assumed the Combined Authority will want
to continue offering concessionary fare schemes and discounted or free
travel for certain passenger group groups. 3 .22 provides for discussion
principles for how the Combined Authority could consider which groups we offer
this benefit to but we will need to consider how we financially subsidise
that cost. Initial version of the strategy is to move up to the Combined Authority
for approval in December and a more detailed version of the strategy will be
developed throughout 2026 alongside an implementation plan and that is before
any decision on is made on what exact fare and tickets to offer to passengers
once the Weaver network is operationalised and I'll stop there and see if there's any
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:16:18
questions. So this is obviously a subject that we need to put a lot of thought into
going forward and there's lots of expenditure that we would love to do on
this subject but the going forward you need to decide you know where where the
that we've got goes and so questions councillor Courtney yeah thank you I
think the development of a multi mode of multimodal fares and
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:16:49
ticketing is really good and will be great of great benefit to bus and rail
services and in Colvedale across the whole region in the longer term yeah
Really really like that
However the cost of the bus franchising process will be obviously we know that would be a key a key factor
along with any funding funding settlements around
Really like the strategic objectives out at three point eight
And then just in terms of three point two to looking at that the sort of thing around subsidies
I just think it's really important that we make sure that subsidies benefit people who are furthest away from economic activity.
It again that
feeds into our inclusive economy work across the region, you know, something that locally as well in our local authorities
we're all really keen on
to adding to the growth of regional local economies and making sure that it's evidence -based and that we're getting the right people not just
based on what we think might be nice, but actually is based on evidence of who is furthest away from
being able to access jobs, health, skills, education, all of those sorts of things, the
people that we really need to connect up with public transport. But yeah, it's really positive,
really liking this. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Conlon.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:18:06
Councillor Cook. Thank you, Chair, and I think this builds
on what Sarah's just said, really. I think it's really important that when we discuss
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 1:18:15
any future concessions, we use a strong evidence base to back up our decisions. And I also
know the criteria down in 3 .22. There is extensive evidence that care experienced young people
have reduced access to opportunity and are disadvantaged to their care experience. So
collectively as parents to these young people I would very much like us to reflect our corporate
parenting responsibilities and prioritise the provision of concessions to this group,
what I see as a clear equivalent to the taxi of mum or dad. Really just to say that I hope
committee agrees with this priority and will support in due course when they make these
decisions around franchising. Thank you.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:18:52
Thank you. And Councillor Pinnock.
Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council - 1:19:00
Thank you, Chair. Now, the thing about this item is that I don't know whether there is
any element of blue sky thinking involved in this. But having been on a short trip to
Netherlands recently and seen how you can integrate different forms of transport with
each other into a system which is very heavily used by people and it's very heavily used
because it works in certain time and all that sort of stuff. And I'm quite sure that the
back of everybody's mind in planning this network is we need to be working
towards that kind of system because you know you have a place like Leeds where
the bus station and the railway station are quite a long way away from each
other and although that might work in in some contexts in other contexts it
probably isn't a good idea.
Now, I know you've probably got to knock some buildings down
in order to achieve that, but which
is why I say a bit of blue sky thinking, well, I won't say
never did anybody anything harm, but that's perhaps
the wrong way of putting it.
But it does seem to me that we have
to think about how we want our public transport system
to actually work for people so that they can get about,
not just doing one journey,
but then what happens at the end of that,
and you've got to catch another train or a bus.
And it's a very awkward distance away,
which it is in a lot of our towns.
If there's any way we can try and bring
all these things together so that it isn't a long walk
from one thing to the other.
with with loads of heavy bags for instance
But is is you go out of the railway station and there's a bus station immediately outside
I know that's a ideal which which isn't going to happen in some places
But I think we have to think like that so that so that we can take any opportunity at all
That helps towards that objective
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:21:27
Cllr Andrew Pinnock Kirklees Council - 1:21:29
I understand that the cost of the Weaver rebrand has been raised previously and we've been
told that commercial confidentiality is the reason why it hasn't been disclosed.
Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council - 1:21:41
I just wondered if you could elaborate on that as to why it is commercially confidential.
Thank you.
So do you want to take those questions then first of all?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:21:52
I think is the first question about the cost of a Weaver brand is that for you son?
So just to confirm we have published the cost of the
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:22:08
Consultancy spot that we have for producing the we've around I'll circulate the link to members
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:22:17
We do
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:22:20
I agree with Councillor pennant that there's that there's an awful lot that we can learn from a number of European cities
It would be remiss of me not to point out the fact that
Public transport systems in many European cities are of course very heavily subsidised
That helps significantly in terms of that that performance but nonetheless absolutely we are
We are going to make sure that we benchmark what we bring forward.
We are members of UITP which is the international public transport body.
So we do have channels to be able to do that through.
Okay, Carlos, do you want to come in there on that one?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:23:07
No problem. I mean, I was just coming to that same point.
The Wever network, just to be fully confirmed, it isn't a bus network.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council - 1:23:22
It is the West Yorkshire's first truly integrated transport network.
So when you look at the network, it covers bus, rail, it will cover tram,
it will cover bikes, it will cover taxi, it will cover your walking routes as well.
It is the way people get around West Yorkshire, however you may choose to do so.
And that's a really powerful thing that we haven't had the opportunity to do previously.
But as Simon points out, other European capital cities and other European cities and countries
have had the ability to do that, but also have had that investment in to do similar
for many years.
So this is something that, unfortunately, we're already starting on the back foot against
many cities, but we can learn off them and hopefully jump forward in the queue.
Thank you very much and obviously Councillor Crooke made an impassioned plea for care
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:24:12
experienced people, care leavers. I know Councillor Steele did something similar
for people with disabilities before 9 .30 at our full council meeting last week so
there are those different groups who I'm sure we would all support it's just how
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:24:31
establish that and how we afford that. Yes so we are, Tom is preparing a piece of work that is intended to bring forward an evidence -based view on need from a number of different perspectives so that we can ensure that the advice that we bring forward to members considers a range of groups within the community
and you're able as members to be able to consider the needs of those different
groups according to the transport related exclusion issues that are faced
by different groups. I'm also aware that the council opponent raised the issue of
physical interchange and just just to emphasise that we are absolutely focused
on physical interchange but ideally not by knocking down buildings I should stress.
One of the advantages that bus franchising brings for us is that we are able to set detailed
routes and therefore we can look at the extent to which services route themselves through
adjacent corridors by railway stations for example and for us to be able to
draw those services closer to the railway stations and then of course also
continue to work with our local authority colleagues on well -lit walking
routes between bus stops and rail stations all of which helps in terms of
interchurch.
Lovely, thank you very much. Now, Councillor Steele.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:26:13
Cllr Chris Steele, Bradford Council - 1:26:16
Yes, as you said, I'm very keen for the disabled patterns to be extended before 9 .30.
Manchester has already had a trial in August and the running one in November for the expansion.
I hope you'll be able to use some of that data in looking at whether or not, what the costs, the implications might be for West Yorkshire,
and if maybe at some point in the future you can run your own trial, maybe before franchising occurs, before we make the final decisions,
and just see what the demand might be and how usage might be affected.
I'd like to point out that disabled, when we were looking at bus passenger numbers beforehand,
the disabled numbers only went down by more than 1 % so it really is a significant
usage and need to there that can't really be mitigated.
Just to reassure members that absolutely we are we are in close contact with
colleagues at Transport for Greater Manchester so at the point that they
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:27:21
they have some evaluation data of their trials again we'll be able to bring that
to this overall evidence -based approach.
Thank you, Councillor Seale, Councillor Simon.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:27:33
Any further questions on this?
I mean, this is an item we're going to revisit, isn't it?
Is it coming back in December, this?
So the combined authority,
but then we'll keep bringing items on this next year
as we develop a second version of the strategy.
Okay, because I think this is an item
Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:27:48
where, as you see, there's different members of champion,
different groups, understandably,
and we probably just need to understand that in the round
and see what's possible with price tags.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:27:59
At the moment we don't have the detail of how much everything costs on this
Lovely okay. Well in that case that is for noting at the moment
Well, I'm happy to endorse it so far as is Councillor Carlos all this in favour please show thank you that it's carried

9 West Yorkshire Home to School Transport Policy Consultation Update

So the next item then is West Yorkshire homeschool transport policy consultation updates him. Yes. This is me. Thank you chair
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:28:29
So again, hopefully members will recall some work that was done on this, particularly an
updated policy earlier this year, and we took that policy to the Combined Authority back
in July of this year.
Just by way of a bit of context, and again this is set out in the paper, so the CA and
through devolved arrangements with local authority colleagues put on around about 328 busses per
day carrying around 20 ,000 pupils and growth cost around 90 million pounds a
year so a significant in an extensive investment which you know is clearly of
benefit to people's across West Yorkshire but provides a very complex
set of arrangements which are really difficult to configure and maintain over
time. That really drove the case of changes as was set out back to the
command authority back in July and we did a public consultation on the
proposed policy between April and June of which over 3 ,700 people took part. So
So that consultation resulted in a new policy being put in place, which again is set out
in the paper in 3 .10 around an implementation of a sustainable travel policy which encourages
a blend of both walking, wheeling and cycling, making use of public transport in terms of
general network services or maintaining existing services where no reasonable alternatives
exist.
And again, making sure that people have access to the right kind of service on the basis
of need and availability remains important to us.
So as part of that process we committed to undertake secondary consultation with six
schools that were proposed as part of that process.
Those are listed in the paper in 3 .12.
And again it's worth setting some degree of context here.
In total on average around 195 pupils use the services across those six schools.
So that specific consultation on those proposed effective schools took place and ran starting
at the end of September and finishing only a matter of days ago.
3 .15 sets out the approach we took for that consultation in terms of levels of detailed
engagement, so writing to all effective parents, carers, all to every school, board members,
head teachers and providing detailed information to all of those, both in terms of the proposed
alternatives that we've been putting forward, some GIS
information, so some maps around the proposed network and areas
affected as well, some cost and some usage data as well.
So again, a very detailed and extensive process
was undertaken as part of that.
Unfortunately, because of the timing of this paper,
what we were not in a position to do
was to put in this paper the detailed results of that.
As I say, it only closed a number of days ago,
but we did commit to providing some information
about the levels of involvement in that consultation
process. I can let members know now that in total we had 148 responses across those six
schools. Broadly speaking, equally applied across most of those schools named there but
with Appleton being the exception with only two responses in total for that school. I
know a number of elected members have written to us on this and again we've had engagement
with both elected members as well in terms of concerns that they might have around the
approach put forward. So whilst we are still working through the full
consultation results I think it will be unfair to try and give any preemptive
views on on the precise decision being taken but this really is a paper to give
opportunity for members to you know to pass comment both on terms of the
process and the approach that we've been taking we are now proposing to take
forward and again note that a full decision will ultimately be taken to the
command authority in December in terms of any proposed changes for next
So happy to stop there and take any questions.
Thank you. Councillor Hutchison.
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 1:32:19
Thank you, Chair. I do have concerns about the withdrawal of service C6 to, that serves Crossley Heath School.
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 1:32:23
It serves a very rural part of Calderdale where the scheduled bus services are extremely infrequent and very unreliable.
and so the practicalities of using other means to get, to make that journey is not at all
good and I do hope that if it is considered to withdraw that service that options for
adjusting the commercial timetable to make it more appropriate for the kids who are attending
that school is taken on board.
Thank you very much.
Chancellor Davis, you are indicating it?
Just a couple of questions.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:33:06
Cllr Debbie Davies, Bradford Council - 1:33:09
Under 3 .6 it says levels of provision are now not equally distributed across the five
local authorities.
Surely it should be based on need rather than equality of local authority because each local
authority is a different size, presumably has different numbers of schools and that
sort of thing.
I was quite surprised to see that.
was one question on that and secondly on the value for money criteria that the
services that proposed to be cut don't meet the £2 .35 per passenger trip
criteria but does that mean that all the remaining services to schools which are
not affected do they all meet that criteria? Thank you.
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:33:54
Yeah so in terms of service C6 that's a concern that has been brought to us and
again we're looking at you know the implications of that change and there
are options to mitigate should that service be withdrawn either through alternative
arrangements in collaboration with the school or through adjustment to the
existing network as well so again what this proposal in no way intends to
leave pupils high and dry you know that's not the intention of these
changes it is to make sure there are reasonable alternatives in place so I
just want to provide that to Sean's chair. In terms of Councillor Davis your
questions. I think what the paper is trying to articulate about levels
provision is even with the application of the policy there are still
inequalities in its use and deployment and again we have situations in parts of
the region where there are only purely statutory or very little beyond
statutory delivery of services whereas there's other parts of the region where
we've got really high levels of provision for people who have made
parental choice to attend particular schools and again what we're trying to
do through the application of the policy that's now been adopted is to bring
forward a more equitable application of those changes again with all of the
principles I've just described. In terms of value for money criteria again
so no at the moment it is not just these six schools which might fall
foul of that or might fall below that VFM there are other schools involved but
what we wanted to do is to test our approach and principles with these
schools as a starting point. Thank you. We do spend more on this region on school
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:35:26
transport within other regions do. By some significant margin.
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:35:28
Councillor McGlothran. Thank you, just building on that last point you made about money.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:35:38
It says in the paper that the cancelation of these services will save
about 200 ,000, just over 200 ,000 pounds. It doesn't say what will happen to that
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 1:35:43
money. I just think some people might want reassurance that this isn't a cash
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 1:35:50
grab and there are actually good reasons for looking at these services again.
But just on the overall point of the cost, just under £19 million a year to fund these,
and about 45 % of that, so what, £9 million, is subsidised by the Combined Authority.
That is a ballooning cost and I think this is a good start to reviewing this entire system
and bringing it back under control.
Thank you.
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 1:36:12
So yeah, I mean certainly in terms of of the approach we are very much trying to you know
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:36:17
unpick
some really long -standing historic arrangements here and I say those costs are
Do need managing managing carefully. We are using both sets improvement plan funding at present to subsidise elements of these services as well
So but I do want to provide a chance that you know
This process was never embarked upon as a means to save money
This is very much about making sure we provide more equitable and more
sustainable process very much with a future how we then transition that into a franchise bus network in future because I
Throughout this meeting gives us much greater opportunities to flex and change services to maintain levels of demand and capacity on the network
The idea would be that you know that we have a lot more network across the region where it's a good for every to use
A bus whenever they want to use it cancel car
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:37:05
One I did want to highlight, as with these six, all of these services have what we believe
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Leeds City Council - 1:37:11
to be alternatives and that's what the consultation is around, is making sure people feedback
that there are suitable alternatives.
So there are bus alternatives to those ones in place at the moment across Leheath as there
are in any of the other services.
In most of them there's a majority, there's a number of different alternatives that people
can put their feedback on.
Just to your point, Matthew, on this, these costs have increased year on year and the
cost of some of these contracts has gone up by as much as 50 % in recent years.
Any money that is saved as part of this will not be a saving of money that we will suddenly
find. It will be a decrease in the amount that these
costs are increasing. We will not save more money than we're having
to put aside emergency in the budget to make sure we're funding this provision.
and in a number of these we are providing services where there is a suitable alternative
on the public transport network and in many cases we could create that suitable alternative.
Many young people already use the public transport network to get to school so I think it's suitable
for us to cheque that we are providing the same level of service everywhere and I think
really Councillor Davies to your point, what I think the report probably should have said
and I know this is something that probably officers are a bit careful of using the word
is trying to provide fairness across the region, which is a better word I think than equity.
We don't want the same provision everywhere, but at the moment provision isn't fair across
every district. Some areas have a lot of provision that just wouldn't be there in many other
areas. Quite often because we've inherited as the combined authority whatever was there
before and then amalgamated it. I don't think we've done the hard work of really looking
at the network as a whole before.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:38:50
Which franchising will give us the opportunity to do, won't it? Okay, so I'm not seeing any
further indications on this I'm happy to recommend those recommendations to
what want to a to cancer Carl seconds those all those in favour please show
that is carried thank you very much so moving on then to item 10 local

10 Local Transport Plan Update

transport update we've seen local transport plan quite a lot of me recent
indeed it came to the combined authority last week's I believe this is just
making sure that the transport committee is up to date with this it is I'll be
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:39:18
I'll be very brief chair yes the committee has been on a journey with us
over quite some time in the preparation of the new local transport plan so this report
Simply provides an update to confirm that the consultation process has now concluded
We have been successful in securing over 1200
written responses
Which I'm very pleased about
Very grateful to a number of members around the table who have been involved in
different activities over the past three months as part of the consultation
process and we will be bringing back in the new year both a summary of what we
have learned through the consultation and the set of proposals for any changes
two further items are noted in the report one relates to the rollout of an
electric vehicle charging programme,
which I think members will very much support
an innovative approach to us being able to support residents
who don't have a driveway,
but are looking to charge cars through a solution,
which once you hear it,
you wonder why somebody didn't invent it
quite some time ago in terms of a very simple conduit
to make sure that we don't have cables
for people to trip over.
And also we are awaiting, I believe within the next few days,
confirmation of our active travel capability rating.
As I sit here right now, I'm confident that we will continue
to be one of a small number of authorities in the country
with a level three rate.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:41:19
Councillor Hutchison, you had a point of clarification on here with 3 .9.
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 1:41:26
Yeah, it was just the wording in paragraph 2 .14, sorry, 3 .9,
where it wasn't clear who actually makes the application,
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 1:41:35
whether that's each chief highway officer for each local authority
or whether it's done through Wicare.
So the intention is that the process is managed locally through local authorities.
Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:41:56
So it's the chief highway officer that needs to get the application by a week -end frango.
OK, thanks.
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 1:42:02
So we all need to chase back at base and make sure that's done, don't we?
I'm sure they're all on it, but you never know.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:42:14
Okay, any further questions on this? I say we've seen it a lot before. No. Well in that case we note the progress. I don't think that was a decision is it?

11 Bus Passenger Charter Update

Excellent, okay fine. And then we move onto the final item on the agenda which is the bus passenger charter update which is what we're trying to do to obviously keep the operators on track pending franchising.
change your voice, I'm going to let Mel pay this paper.
Thank you chair.
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:42:40
Yeah, so the bus passenger charter members will be familiar is our customer service commitment,
Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:42:47
it's what customers can expect to receive when they are using our bus network.
Melissa Liburd, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:42:52
As part of the development of the charter there has been a commitment to undertake an
review and we wanted to give members some reassurance that obviously that
review has taken place but it's actually not just an annual review it's
business as usual for us and so we're constantly reviewing constantly engaging
with communities to look at how we can make improvements and work with our bus
operators as partners to make that experience as inclusive as possible.
So just a reminder that the chart has been in place since 2022 and it was formed
as I said, as part of a partnership with the bus operators via the Bus Alliance Group and
feedback from members of the public as part of the mayor's consultation.
We've got some very specific KPIs and the report highlights progress made against all
of those KPIs, there's ten of them, that focus around safety, coverage of the bus network,
and reliability and punctuality. In terms of a very quick high -level review,
just conscious of time, there's been very little change, I'm pleased to report, in terms
of the core network and servicing our community, so over 75 % of our communities within West
Yorkshire do have access, they are within 400 metres of the core bus network, and also
serving most of our deprived communities as well which is really great to work to
make sure that that's happening. In terms of satisfaction levels we've got some
really good news around bus punctuality we've seen a slight improvement so 80 %
from 79 % yeah and then Metro line so customers the way that they rate Metro
line has also increased from being rated as 6 .2 to 8 .1 it's that's really
fantastic news. That service not only provides journey planning support to
customers but it's also quite instrumental in providing some
safeguarding support as well and giving people the reassurance just around
communication with their services. Satisfaction levels of timetables have
also increased slightly. I know we've had various conversations
throughout timetables and particularly on street we know we've got improvements
to make but in terms of how customers are viewing it they are definitely seeing a difference
and actually we've also increased the number of timetables and casings on our street from
just to 13 ,000 from just over 8 ,000 in 12 months so again some really pleasing progress
in that space as well.
Wear improvements still need to be made around satisfaction levels, we are still seeing a
disparity for people that are disabled compared to those that are not disabled. We've done
quite a lot of work over the last 12 months to really try and unpick some of this and
really think about what inclusive travel looks like. The report does highlight a lot of that
engagement as well as we've been giving regular updates at previous transport committees about
some of the activities that have been taking place. Some of that work has led to some really
good implementations of services.
So for example, back in May, we launched Sign Live,
which is now called Convo, sorry, Convo Formerly Sign
Live, which provides BSL support.
So for BSL users, they've got a real time kind of interaction
with an interpreter, and they can very quickly relay
information back to many of our core frontline services, which
has been really welcomed.
We have also seen massive improvements
for those that are applying for free travel via our concessionary travel scheme. The inclusive
travel team was introduced into the combined authority so we have managed to increase the
application turnaround time from 20 weeks in many areas down to 8 and we have processed
over 13 ,000 applications over the course of 12 months. That is fantastic for those people
that really rely on free travel and just making sure the applications are timely.
And then just in terms of next steps really, we obviously recognise that we have got some
transition to do as we move obviously to the Weaver network and as part of the local transport plan.
So we're looking at how we're going these commitments are going to evolve and obviously
will be working as part of the working with members of the community for that
ongoing conversation and looking at what we need to do specifically in terms of
delivering on the series and developing a series of commitments moving forwards
so happy to take any questions around that thank you very much
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:47:48
any questions of this thank you chair yeah I thank you for the presentation
for the work that's gone into this. The issue I wanted to raise was around accessibility.
It's very clear from the report how much work has gone into investigating the entire topic
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 1:48:04
of accessibility of various kinds, which is great to see and is greatly appreciated. Thank
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 1:48:11
you for that. But I'm pretty certain that at previous Transport Committee meetings we
agreed to include a specific key performance indicator around accessibility and how we
measure success and improvement but it doesn't seem to be here. I'm pretty I
can't remember which meeting it was but I'm pretty certain that Helen Elerton
told us that there would be one so I'm just wondering what's what's happened
there it's included as a pledge in the wording of the of the public facing
document but I couldn't really see how it fitted into the KPIs and how we've
been measuring success so if we could offer an update on that please I'd appreciate it.
Thank You cancer Courtney yeah thank you very much as a member of the bus
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:48:59
Alliance Colvedale has been very supportive of the passenger charter and
continues to do so into franchising in paragraph 3 .21 there's the highlights
probably of keeping timetable cases up to date of bus stops and it is a
particular problem in Colvedale because we're so particularly rural and it was
mentioned in one of the earlier papers as well that we've got a bit of a lag
So any improvements in this area would be particularly welcome.
Thank you.
Councillor Hutchison.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:49:32
Thank you. Regarding concessionary fares for people with visual impairment who obviously can't drive,
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Kirklees Council - 1:49:34
Cllr Colin Hutchinson, Calderdale Council - 1:49:37
the average of eight weeks, is that, that's still two months to actually get a concessionary fare arrangement.
Is that equally spread across the whole of West Yorkshire or are there particular areas
where it's significantly longer?
Because I know locally there have been difficulties in the support services for visually impaired
people in Calderdale and I just wondered if that's reflected in the applications for concessionary
fares.
That's a really good question, thank you.
Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:50:13
Sorry, am I okay to answer that one?
Yeah, I don't have the details specifically but I will get those details for you and we'll give you that breakdown that you need
Melissa Liburd, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:50:23
Thank you
Sorry, the first question
Again, I'm going to need to come back to you on that
Thomas Lock, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:50:32
I'm afraid because I need to double cheque what the specific request was
And look at why there's been an omission on that, but I will come back to you on that one
Councillor Firth.
Yeah, just a very quick one, 3 .20
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:50:49
around the information that we haven't got from
Cllr Caroline Firth - 1:50:53
bus operators around the last bus guarantee. This is something we've discussed at length in previous meetings and once that
information does become available could someone please circulate it to us so we can have a look.
Tim Taylor Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:51:09
Yeah, so let me take on quickly. We've had the majority of operators return but just not all of them
so as soon as we get the last few stragglers we'll get the data circulated. I think you know it does still say
the port, anecdotally it is quite low, but really this should be an unevent, we shouldn't be cancelling busses,
the last busses anyway is something that operators recognise is a real issue.
Okay, any final questions? We've got five minutes to go. No? Okay, well in that case I think we note this one, don't we?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) Bradford Council - 1:51:35
Yes we do chair.

For Information

12 Date of the Next Meeting

We noting this so thank you very much and the only other thing on the agenda
Was a day to the next meeting, which is 29th of January, but I think we're not some workshops before that we do
we have I
Do apologise we have a?
workshop
on active travel in December.