Watchdog to review progress on city’s bus service improvements

A WATCHDOG which led a major inquiry into bus provision in Yorkshire’s largest city will meet this week to debate whether it is moving better as a result.

The inquiry helped kickstart an overhaul of services in Leeds which has led to the recent introduction of contactless ticketing and other innovations

A meeting of Leeds Council’s cross-party Infrastructure and Investment scrutiny panel is set to hear about how well the city’s and the region’s bus operators are fulfilling a number of pledges made almost exactly a year ago, including bringing in smarter, more efficient ticketing, a £1m programme to deal with reliability ‘hotspots’ and air pollution.

The panel had previously issued its own nine-point action plan on how bus provision in the city could be improved.

Tomorrow’s meeting will hear about Bus 18, an informal partnership between regional super-council West Yorkshire Combined Authority and bus operators which has been put in place in the last few months, and which will ultimately help determine the most appropriate use of the powers in the new Bus Services Act for the region. A consultation with the public on better bus services is also launching next month.

A report to be presented to the panel stresses the need to “enhance the responsiveness and accountability of bus operators to local communities”, as well as to “open up the bus service market to new competitors and to promote competition in Leeds and the West Yorkshire region”.

The meeting will be told that recent “short-term actions” are “aimed at making buses easier to use” and to “learn lessons for the future”.