WEST Yorkshire’s Mayor has been urged to keep the cheaper 'Mayor’s Fares' despite a £2 ticket cap being scrapped nationally.
Tracy Brabin announced the £2 cap on West Yorkshire bus fares in 2022 as a way of boosting a bus network that was struggling after the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was funded with millions of pounds of cash from a Bus Service Improvement Plan awarded to West Yorkshire by the Government.
A similar £2 fare cap was adopted nationally shortly after.
But in the recent Autumn Budget, the new Labour Government announced the fare cap would rise to £3.
At a recent meeting of West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Councillors across the region were told that the future of the £2 Mayor’s Fare in the region was dependent on how much West Yorkshire was allocated from the Government’s latest Bus Service Improvement Plan funding.
Nationally that funding is worth £640m – but the Government has yet to announce how much of that will go to West Yorkshire.
Now Councillor Matt Edwards, leader of the Greens on Bradford Council, has written to Mayor Brabin urging her to keep the £2 cap.
His letter to the Mayor says: “We are writing to urge you to follow the lead of your counterpart in Greater Manchester and maintain the £2 bus fare cap across West Yorkshire.
“In September 2022, West Yorkshire became the first area in England to introduce a £2 fare cap and this has had a significant impact for bus users across our region.
“Despite this, bus users, particularly those across Bradford District have had to endure a difficult year following the closure of Bradford Interchange and now disruption caused by staff shortages impacting Arriva services."
He added: “Increasing bus use is one of the simplest ways we can reduce emissions in our region.
“Using the bus instead of taking the car can help reduce CO2 emissions by 42 per cent.
“We hope you will do what it takes to maintain the £2 fare cap across our region and look forward to hearing from you.”
A West Yorkshire Combined Authority spokesperson told the Telegraph & Argus: “Our Mayor’s Fares scheme has successfully capped prices for single bus fares and day savers in West Yorkshire since September 2022.
“We’re committed to keeping fares as low and affordable as possible to get more people using public transport as we create a greener, better-connected region."
The spokesperson added: “When the Government confirms regional funding allocations for bus services in the coming weeks, we’ll set out more details about bus fares in West Yorkshire.”
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