By Chris Young, local democracy reporter
A big decline in bus patronage in West Yorkshire “came as a shock” to transport bosses, councillors have been told.
The number of people using the region’s bus network this past summer was eight per cent lower than summer 2024.
This meant there were 2.3m fewer bus journeys in the “Quarter 2” three-month period this year than in 2024. Patronage fell by 9.7 per cent among under 19s.
The figures were discussed at a meeting of West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Transport Committee on Wednesday.
The committee is made up of councillors from across West Yorkshire.
During the discussion members said the decline highlighted the need for bringing bus services under public control.
The Authority is in the process of franchising West Yorkshire’s bus services, which will give local politicians a say over bus routes, frequency and fares.
A report to the committee said: “Overall West Yorkshire bus patronage in Quarter 2 2025 was eight per cent lower compared to Quarter 2 2024.
“This is the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline since Q3 2024.
“Before this, patronage had been growing (associated with post-pandemic recovery) or had remained relatively stable.
“The declines in the adult and under 19 cohorts had the biggest impact on the overall patronage trend; between Q2 2025 and Q2 2024 there were 1.2 million and 700,000 fewer adult and under 19 passenger journeys, contributing 51 per cent and 29 per cent of the overall decline, respectively.”
Wakefield saw the steepest decline – with the number of people using buses in the district falling by over 13 per cent in one year.
The report added: “A range of factors are likely to have contributed to the recent decline in patronage. Service reductions appear to be a significant element; in Q2 2025, the number of scheduled vehicle journeys fell by 3 per cent compared with Q2 2024, equivalent to approximately 37,800 fewer journeys.
“The timing of the national and regional fare cap change at the end of March 2025 is also likely to have some effect.”
It goes on to say a recent survey of bus users found that 10 per cent of respondents reported using the bus less frequently since the fare change.
“Among those who said they were travelling less by bus or has stopped using it, almost one-third attributed this to higher fares.
“It is possible that the recent period of decline marks the start of a reversion towards the longer-term pattern of gradual patronage decline that characterised the pre-pandemic decade; total West Yorkshire bus patronage in the year ending March 2024 remained 29 per cent below 2009/10 levels.
“We recognise that this rate of decline is of concern so we will undertake more analysis of the regional and national picture to understand the causal factors.”
Chair of the Committee, Bradford Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe, said: “How do we increase patronage across a region that has historically relied on cars to get around – which leads to us sitting in traffic for hours on end?”
Simon Warburton, Executive Director of Transport, said the drop “came as quite a shock” and that the authority was collecting more data around the decline ahead of work to introduce bus franchising.
Some members pointed out that the past year had seen a decline in bus reliability in the Wakefield area, and this was likely to have played a big part in the fall in patronage.
Councillor Peter Carlill (Lab, Calverley & Farsley) said: “It is no surprise with Wakefield, as the area has seen incredibly poor service that has only just returned to being a bit more reliable.
“The franchising assessment (carried out by the Authority ahead of the decision to adopt franchising) said there would be a period of decline – it has been more pronounced this year. The assessment said taking public control of the network would help turn around the decline.”
Councillor Matthew McLoughlin (Kirklees) said: “It turns out if you cut bus services then people don’t use them. Funny that.”
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Clearly Kier Starmer hiking west Yorkshire with higher bus ticket prices by taking control of our Devolved Mayors Fares and putting 50p on every ticket had a clear suppressive effect on demand for bus usage.
Basic economics.
Clearly a priority in the November Buget and next financial year’s West Yorkshire Combined authority Transport office buget to increase buse usage; is to reverse this decline.
To fix the problem- lower bus ticket prices by 50p at least for all single return and under 21 and student and disabled tickets on all west yorkshire bus routes, so that cheaper tickets encourages greater consumer demand.
This way we can fix the issues while ensuring steady increase in number of tickets sold while reducing costs for normal families and workers and students and young people who get on the bus.
Then we slap massive fines on the big foreign owned large private bus companies who are a complete shambles and fail to have their pledges of improvement met with tangible buses turning up on time across Yorkshire’s streets. We need to fine them to encourage them to stop their mischief and pocketing of taxpayers subsidy money while refusing to upgrade our transport network, especially in Leeds with dodgy bad business Cowboy Private developers refusing to pay workers on the White Rose rail line causing a mass walkout and WYCA out of millions of pounds, we need to fine into bankruptcy and liquidation these dodgy private firms who riddle our transport network, landbank important routes and they make Yorkshire slower than a rabbit with no legs.
What’s London’s Lot gonna do to help us fix it?
My bus use declined because I have a choice of standing on a bus (if it stops) for 40 minutes braced against the stop start traffic and giving myself hip pain all day as a result OR a 17 minute walk to the train station 7 mins standing on a train so tightly packed we cant move and a 7 minute walk to the office at the end. For 10p more in fares I take the healthy brisk walk option. I wonder how many others have switched from bus to train as the fares are now so similar?
Don’t blame Keir starmer you are all jumping on a discussing bandwagon you’ve forgot what was left.The problem with buses is reliability caused by lazy management especially in Bradford.The drivers are running it while the so called management sit on there backsides or run there other businesses that is fact I know from experience.Get your job done and stop it or are you scared.Earn your money especially Tracey branam maybe she would be better on coronation street?
I think to myself it’s weird when I notice that our Glorious and eternally beloved Sir Kier Starmer PM tends to Sack women ministers & nunber10 advisors and labour SPADS more than male ones. Like, a bit noticeable but maybe nowt, ah think t’missen.
Then I see the dismissive attitude towards women shown by the person starmer defender above offering no practical pragmatic everyday workable solutions to fix this shock decline in bus usage, (which is a negative thing) and e’s saying “don’t blame kier starmer, it’s the woman’s fault” and sommet just clicks… wow I guess the Labour Party really does have a problem with women.
I would use the bus more often but my service is notorious for not turning up and it’s only every hour, and 2 hourly on evenings and Sundays. Another issue is the operator putting little buses on at PEAK times, and double deckers on at quiet times. What is the point of this?? Surely there must be a double decker available at peak times to prevent passengers been squashed on board like cattle, and even getting left behind at the bus station as I have been on occasions when the ridiculous little bus is full to capacity!! What’s required is better planning and utilising of suitable buses for both Peak and off peak journeys. To put it simply, smaller buses during the day and the double deckers early morning and evenings for workers and School/college/University. You don’t mind waiting 10 mins for another bus if yours is full, but an hour is beyond a joke.
It’s not the fares it’s the complete fiasco of buses “Disappearing” . They go from being 10 minutes away…9….8….7….6…..5……4……3…..2……1…..DUE…….then…… NOTHING*…. other than next bus 45 minutes!
Anyone with a car isn’t going to tolerate it.
*If Musk gets to Mars he’ll be gutted to find hundreds of buses got there before him )
Probably due to a useless service… You’re lucky if they turn up on time or turn up at all. When they do arrive you end up on a ridiculous route that takes forever.
Ever since Covid the 72 bus between Leeds and Bradford has only been timed to run approximately every 20 minutes – and don’t tell me to catch the X6, that’s no use for those of us who live on the part of the route only served by the 72. If one bus gets cancelled that’s a 40 minute gap with no service. When the buses are running they are already full when they arrive at the stop which makes for a very unpleasant journey, if I am able to board at all, then it takes forever to get into Leeds because it stops too frequently. The bus live tracking on First’s mobile app is useless, it will still be saying the next bus is 3 minutes away as it drives past my stop before I get there and miss it. When I catch the train instead from New Pudsey, platform 2 will be absolutely packed to the rafters as we all stare at the 2 carriage scrapyard special that pulls up, already full to standing, 10 minutes late due to whatever ‘excuse of the day’ Northern have invented now. Slippery rails on a dry sunny day in July, really?? I note Northern’s upcoming tender for new trains is mostly for more 2 and 3 carriage units – unacceptable! Northern need to be pressured into ordering all the new trains as 4 and 5 carriage units, and cascade the class 195 units down to quieter lines. No wonder public transport use is down!