Thirty bus services across West Yorkshire would have been axed this summer without public funding, it has been revealed.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) said it had taken over the contracts of these services from private operators to keep them alive.

Cash was also used to prop up off-peak buses and maintain frequencies on a further 26 routes across the region, local councillors were told at a meeting on Friday.

The money came from an £8m fund WYCA received from the Department of Transport earlier this year, specifically to prop up routes operators no longer deem viable.

Mick Bunting, WYCA’s director of transport operations, said: “We’re currently running 56 contracts which would have been stopped between July and now, on the back of BSIP (bus service improvement plan) plus money.

“That’s a really positive story.

“We’re providing those services to keep people in West Yorkshire connected and we’re doing everything we can to maintain stability and passenger confidence.”

Mr Bunting said more cash from the same pot may have to be used to rescue even more services which are on the “margin” of breaking even for operators.

Last week, both First and Arriva refused to rule out cutting more routes in the near future, with emergency cash both were receiving from the government since 2020 having expired in June.

WYCA’s transport and infrastructure scrutiny committee was also told operators were trying to “renegotiate” the cash they get as part of the region’s £2 bus fares scheme.

£34m of public money was set aside to cover operator losses as a result of flat £2 fares having been introduced last year, though that is supposed to keep the scheme running until 2025.

Simon Warburton, WYCA’s executive director for transport, was unable to say how much of that £34m had been spent thus far, when it was put to him by one councillor that the authority was “burning through it quite fast”.

But he added: “We are facing the usual challenges in terms of cost inflation, which is causing bus operators to want to quite fundamentally renegotiate that going forwards.

“There was always provision within the arrangement that it would be renegotiated after one year.”