Mayor takes bus to work and says: We must be able to do better than this...

THE newly-elected West Yorkshire mayor experienced what life is like for thousands of public transport passengers across the county as she got the bus to work.

Tracy Brabin, who was appointed as the region’s firstever metro mayor over the weekend, has put an overhaul of bus and train services at the top of her to-do list.

In her first full week in the new role, Ms Brabin got the bus to work and experienced the pitfalls of public transport in West Yorkshire.

She tweeted: “Second day in job as #WestYorkshireMayor & heading to work on the bus.

“Timetable online doesn’t match actual arrival/journey times, no information at bus stops (bus number would help).

“15 min drive, 1hr+ on the bus. We must be able to do better than this.”

She tagged bus provider Arriva in her tweet, signalling that the private companies who run services across West Yorkshire must do better.

Bus passengers in Wakefield recently told YorkshireLive that changes are desperately needed. Some would like cheaper tickets, while others simply want more reliable services.

In the build-up to the West Yorkshire mayoral election, Ms Brabin spoke at length of her plans to bring bus services back under public control.

During a Q&A session with The Examiner’s sister website, YorkshireLive, Ms Brabin said: “I will be determined to bring buses under our control.

“You can’t do that as a member of Parliament, but I can as the mayor of West Yorkshire, so that we get a bus service that works for people, and not profit – so we get the routes that work for us, the price where we can have a tap-in, tap-out fare capped across the region that serves the population better.”

She even went as far as saying “I will definitely have failed and you must not vote for me again” if she is not successful in making strides towards improving public transport during her three-year term.

Ms Brabin’s bus journey yesterday came a day after Greater Manchester metro mayor, Andy Burnham, also travelled to work by public transport on his first day back in the office after winning reelection.

He said: “We won’t have levelled up this journey until a bus journey in Harpurhey [an inner-city Manchester suburb] costs the same as it does in Haringey in London.” He then explained how his ticket for the bus in Manchester cost £2.50, while the same journey in London costs just £1.55.

“So there’s a pound up already there,” he said.

“And the question is this: why should public transport cost more in some of the less affluent areas of the country?”

He then got on a tram to complete his journey, which took an hour-and-a-half to cover eight miles.