Transport: Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin criticises bus companies following survey which ranked West Yorkshire worst in England for customer satisfaction
The mayor of West Yorkshire has criticised private bus companies following a survey which revealed customer satisfaction in West Yorkshire was the lowest in England.
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said that West Yorkshire customers are “fed up with the patchy service they are getting from private bus companies” in response to a newly published survey which ranked West Yorkshire as the worst local authority in England for customer satisfaction.
The ‘Your Bus Survey’, published by Transport Focus on March 25, measured bus user satisfaction across Great Britain throughout 2024 across several aspects of the bus service, including value for money, punctuality of buses, the bus driver, and the time the journey took.
In England, overall satisfaction with the bus journey rose from 80 per cent to 83 per cent in 2024.
West Yorkshire ranked bottom out of 39 English local authorities which were included in the survey, with an overall satisfaction score of 77 per cent.
It was one of four local authorities to score less than 80 per cent, along with Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, and West Midlands.
Derby City ranked first, with 92 per cent.
Despite this, West Yorkshire was the region with the biggest improvement since 2023 out of all six urban metropolitan local authorities which were included, with a rise of 4 per cent.
In response to the survey, Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin said: “As a user of public transport, I know as well as anyone that the current system is broken, and more passengers are speaking out about it – fed up with the patchy service they are getting from private bus companies.
“We have taken action to keep fares low and important services running, but are faced with the risk of further service cuts from operators who claim they cannot afford to run the services that our communities rely on.
“That is why we are bringing a publicly-owned, franchised bus network to West Yorkshire, meaning that, starting in 2027, all services will be run in the interests of passengers rather than shareholders.”
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority said it was working to improve bus services throughout the region, including: capping single journeys at £2.50 and day tickets at £6 from April until the end of 2025 through its ‘Mayor’s Fares’ scheme; increasing frequencies and longer service hours on bus routes; and creating a franchised bus network, with the first services scheduled to come into public control from 2027 and complete in 2028.
Out of 61 operators included in the survey for England, Arriva in West Yorkshire ranked lowest, with customer satisfaction at 69 per cent.
Kim Cain, area director for Arriva North East and Yorkshire said: “We recognise that it has been a challenging period for our bus services in West Yorkshire, which is why we are continuing to take action to improve performance.
“This includes recruiting more than 340 drivers since the start of 2024, strengthening our fleet with the arrival of 34 buses and investing in a new maintenance site.
"We know how important our bus services are to local communities across West Yorkshire, and we are committed to making these improvements and delivering the reliable bus network that our customers deserve.”
First in West Yorkshire ranked 59 out of 61, with a score of 76 per cent – an improvement of four per cent since the previous year.
A spokesperson for First Bus said: “The results show overall satisfaction with our services has improved by four per cent year-on-year, which is in line with the region as a whole.
“Two-thirds of fare paying customers were satisfied with the value for money of the journey, again matching the results for all of West Yorkshire and close to that for England overall.
“We are continuing to concentrate on improvements to customer experience, focussing on better reliability and punctuality, together with keeping the cost of regular bus travel low.”