Plea for clarity on bus funding
BUS OPERATORS in West Yorkshire are continuing to pay for “invisible passengers”, it has been claimed, as regional decision-makers are set to ask the Government for clarity over funding.
It was claimed at a meeting of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) transport committee, that the organisation was still spending £3m-amonth on concessionary fares, having been told to do so by government earlier in the lockdown. The money is paid to bus operators, subsidising them for concessionary fares taken from customers, such as vulnerable and elderly people.
However, with the lockdown leading to a vast reduction in bus travel, regional politicians are arguing fewer vulnerable people had been using buses, and that money could be better spent elsewhere.
The chairwoman of WYCA’s transport committee Coun Kim Groves said: “Leaders have continuously tried to liaise with government to try secure additional funding – there is no funding coming forward. We need an announcement on buses before August. We are still paying concessionary fares which really have been invisible customers – that is costing us £3 million per month.
“We are at a really critical stage – we have gone from preCovid, looking at a national bus strategy, to hardly any communication at all (from government) on funding. We are going to have to make difficult decisions on concessionary fares we are currently paying. We are paying for people that are not travelling, straight to the operators.
“I can’t foresee that can continue.”
The government asked local transport authorities to maintain concessionary fare and tendered bus service payments to bus operators at the amounts that were being paid immediately before the emergency.
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