Bus companies in West Yorkshire will be handed £37m to lower fares

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has announced that passengers will pay no more than £2 for a single journey from tomorrow, and they will be able to make an unlimited number of journeys for £4.50 a day by buying a DaySaver ticket on the MCard App.

The Labour mayor said the cap will “ease the burden” on families who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.

It was introduced after West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) successfully applied for £69.9m of Government funding for its Bus Service Improvement Plan.

The Department for Transport has handed out £1.1bn to fund improvements in 31 areas of the country, after it invited mayors and council leaders to submit a bid and outlinetheir ambitious plans to make services cheaper, greener, more frequent and more reliable.

WYCA said more than half the funding it received – £37m – will be handed to the bus operators so they can subsidise fares for passengers, if the move is approved at a meeting on Friday.

“Given the current ‘cost of living crisis’, the Mayor felt that it was important that individuals and families obtain the benefit of this as soon as practically possible,” a WYCA report stated.

The rest will be spent on upgrading the bus network and making services more frequent and more reliable.

The Bus Service Improvement plan aims to make sure passengers can catch a bus every 15 minutes or quicker in West Yorkshire, 95 per cent of services arrive on time by 2025 and communities which have lost bus routes in recent years are reconnected.

Earlier this year, Ms Brabin warned that 62 routes could be reduced or axed in October if the Government did not agree to provide more financial support to bus operators, which have been struggling with a drop in passenger numbers during the pandemic and rising costs.

The Government then agreed to provide another £130m for operators to protect services until March.