On the buses: Call to improve real time notification of delays and service cancellations on routes in Calderdale and West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire metro Mayor Tracy Brabin has put good public transport links at the heart of her policy goals through West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Bus Service Improvement Plan and Calderdale Council has similar aims.

Calderdale councillors debating parking strategy recently acknowledged it was a case of one step at a time as councils do not control bus and rail services.

At full Calderdale Council, Coun Amanda Parson-Hulse welcomed Ms Brabin’s new Mayor’s Fares scheme giving cheaper travel but said reliability including communication via real time information was poor. In the past Coun Mike Barnes (Lab, Skircoat) has voiced similar frustrations.

Coun Parsons-Hulse (Lib Dem, Warley) asked Cabinet members if they could help improve the situation.

“One of the key components of the bus service improvement plan is the improved journey time and ultimately the reliability of services, and reliability is actually one of the most important aspects,” she said.

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“People need to know they are going to get to work on time, hospital appointments on time, and important meetings on time.

“Is there any reason why we cannot get the bus companies to update our real time system?

“I’ve been told it is a possibility – I am aware that the bus companies have been really difficult about this,” she added.

Council Deputy Leader Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said rural communities needed that reliability.

“It isn’t an easy road to improving bus services in this country,” she said, adding the situation had been difficult since bus companies were privatised.

“The competition between them has not always been in the interest of the bus user,” she said.

Coun Scullion said work would continue through the enhanced partnership, adding she would not say the bus companies were being unco-operative – but it was a difficult journey balancing companies’ need to make a profit and councils’ aim to improve services.

Coun Scullion said she would try and get the information Coun Parsons-Hulse requested but these were operated by commercial companies who provided bus companies with their own private information.