YEP Says (Feb 8): If you lay on top class buses, the custom will come

But these days, on the streets of our city and across West Yorkshire, you’re more likely to hear ‘I hate you, buses.’

Only on Friday your Yorkshire Evening Post attended a meeting where First TransPennine Express trains committed to spend half a billion pounds on improving its rail infrastructure and rolling stock.

But one desperate participant at the meeting held in York made a point that gained solid support in the room, and will resonate across the region.

That is, please can the management – in large parts from one and the same company – at the bus companies and the train companies do their long-suffering customers the courtesy of talking to one another in order to provide a seamless, stress-free, joined-up and reliable service?

The jury is out on that, but one thing is for sure; no matter how eye-wateringly miserable the M1, M62, A660 Ilkley crawl – the list goes on – motorists will not be lured out of their cars and onto buses, trams, trains and the like unless they feel the benefit; that is, in terms of ease of use, time benefit and most importantly, in their pocket.

Undoubtedly, the people of West Yorkshire deserve the very best service.