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Bus shake up aims to get top marks from Leeds students
Transport chiefs believe their plans for a bus industry shake-up in Leeds will get top marks from the city's students.
The student unions at the University of Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan University and Leeds Trinity University College have launched a joint campaign calling for improved bus services.
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They say services running in Headingley, Hyde Park and other parts of the city's studentland need to be more reliable and frequent with a fairer pricing structure.
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And the campaign has now won an encouraging response from bosses at Metro, the publicly-funded body that co-ordinates West Yorkshire's bus network.
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Metro today said its proposed quality bus contract scheme would address the concerns raised by students, making life easier for them and the rest of the city's passengers.
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The scheme would give Metro the final say on local bus routes, fares and frequencies – matters that, at present, are decided by profit-driven private operators.
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Metro director general Kieran Preston told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "We believe that quality contracts would deliver better value for money for passengers and taxpayers.
"They could also mean more investment in newer vehicles, as well as faster and more frequent journeys, which people have told us they want to see."
Metro is carrying out development and consultation work with a view to bringing in quality contracts in late 2011. If bus firms refuse to play ball, then as things stand the scheme's introduction could be forced
through with Department for Transport approval.
Serious doubts exist, however, over the future of quality contracts if the Conservatives win the General Election.
Speaking in December, shadow transport minister Stephen Hammond said the contracts had "no place in a deregulated bus industry".
* For more details on the campaign, visit: www.leedsstudentbuscampaign.com
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Friday 25 May 2012
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