Fare dodgers on Northern Spirit trains will face fines from next month in the first scheme of its kind in West Yorkshire.

Rail regulators have given the go-ahead for a penalty fares scheme on the busy Airedale and Wharfedale services which cover stations including Forster Square, Frizinghall, Shipley, Ilkley, Baildon, Ben Rhydding, Bingley, Silsden, Saltaire, Crossflatts and Silsden.

Northern Spirit says ticket machines will be installed at all unmanned stations on the line, including Saltaire and Baildon before the blitz starts.

The move was welcomed by Bradford Councillor John Prestage, chairman of the district's passenger consultative committee, who said it was vital that everyone should have the opportunity to pay at all the stations before they were targeted.

A Northern Spirit spokesman said the scheme would begin on November 20 and passengers would be made well aware of it in advance.

The company says it has become increasingly difficult to collect fares on crowded trains as passenger numbers grow.

All passengers will have to buy tickets before they board trains or get travel permits if they use unmanned stations.

If they do not have them they will get warnings, be charged full fares and persistent offenders would have to pay £10 fines.

Fare dodgers are estimated to cost the company £3 million a year in West Yorkshire. Northern Spirit says people are getting on trains without tickets, believing they will reach the end of their journeys before hard-pressed conductors can reach them.

l Tenders are expected to go out next month for the £3 million refurbishment of Keighley bus station.

Work is expected to start in January and will last for about nine months. The whole bus station will close for at least part of the time and bus stops will be moved on to nearby streets.