Bus company First have announced a series of service changes in Pudsey following concerns express by townsfolk.
A packed public meeting in September saw angry residents voice their concerns to changes in the bus timetables which they say left the town with a poorer bus service on the X14, X11 and 4 services.
The meeting led to a series of consultation events in Pudsey during November and December where representatives from First met with concerned passengers. Issues were also raised at a special transport-themed meeting of the council’s Outer West Community Committee, which was held in Pudsey Leisure Centre.
Thhe following changes will come into effect from the weekend of 19th/20th February:
Services 14 and X14:
Additional peak journeys on service X14 with buses departing Pudsey Bus Station at 0640, 0705, 0735, 0805, 0835 and from Leeds Park Row at 1543, 1618, 1648, 1723, 1755 – at these times of day the 14 will run between Leeds and Bramley only.
For the rest of the day service 14 will continue to run every 30 minutes (Monday to Saturday daytimes) and hourly (evening and Sunday) but will now terminate at Park Row due to delays experienced in accessing Vicar Lane.
Service X11:
A new evening and Sunday service X11 will run from Pudsey to Bradford. Evening buses will run at 1821, 1851, 1951, 2051 and 2151 from Pudsey and return from Bradford at 1820, 1920, 2020, 2120 with the last bus at 2230.
Sunday X11s will run from Pudsey at 0851 and hourly to 2151 and back from Bradford 0920 and every hour to 2120 These times allow connection with service 4 in Pudsey if required.
The X11 timetable will have some minor changes to reduce the need to wait time at Armley Branch Road.
Service 4:
On Monday to Fridays Service 4 will operate from Galloway Lane during shopping hours at 1006, 1042 and every 30 minutes to 1342, 1416, 1446, 1516 – buses will wait time at Waterloo. These times are as close as to a 15-minute service with the X11 as can be accommodated. Buses from Pudsey Bus Station to Galloway Lane will run at 0957, 1003 and every 30 minutes to 1333, 1407, 1437, 1507. Buses that operate to Galloway Lane will show 4G.
The service 4 journey at 1822 from Boar Lane Monday to Friday will continue from Waterloo to terminate at Highfield Green following a customer request.
Service 11:
The timetable will be revised to adjust the times along the route following feedback that buses often wait time en route.
The changes have met with a mixed response on social media. Pudsey resident Kirstie lodge posted on Facebook:
“Hoping it improves things but my main issues are buses cancelling or running out of service because of lack of drivers or because they’ve got behind on an evening back from Leeds.”
The timetables will be available in early February.
What do you think? Will the changes be an improvement? Have your say in our just for fun poll and in the comments section below.
As I understand it the issue isn’t the frequency of the buses but the journey times and that’s barely being addressed here. Exactly the same here in Bramley where the buses take such circuitous routes it can take the thick end of an hour to reach the city centre even out of peak time. Most annoying are bus stops so close together you can see the next one from the one you’re sitting at (Dennison Hall and the next stop on Armley Town Street then yet another stop immediately after the turn by the library)? I’m not calling for the removal of bus stops but why not limited stop express services at certain times. Travel by bus? Hope you’ve got all day!
Still a lot of work to do on this for me I am afraid – while frequency was an issue for some people (especially early in the morning) the tour around Stanningley and Bramley (as lovely as they are!) is unnecessary and adds unneeded time to some journeys. Hope the new times provide added reliability though.
It’s a start but nowhere near addressing what the concerns were raised at the public needed. Guess that takes too much effort though
Customers (we are customers many of which have no alternative but to use these inferior services) require a frequent and importantly a direct service from A to B without taking a magical mystery tour. As previous posters have said, it can take an age to get into Leeds centre from most of West Leeds.
Other parts of Leeds, Cookridge comes to mind, have frequent direct services.
So looking at this is there nothing that goes along Cemetery Road? Cheers for that First Bus you’ve added a 20 minute walk to my day.Grrrr.
It’s a good set of steps. The buses are struggling with urban congestion. Rather than trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic ship that are the roads around Leeds, we need our councillors to ensure that west Leeds get the best deal possible out of the transport money so that our journeys are as quick and reliable as possible
Shame the not doing anything with the 16’s as well. That service is so unrelaible. First need to get rid of the off-peak and Sunday 16A’s that go via Rodley as no one ever gets on it..