HE came by rail but West Yorkshire’s public transport chief is hopeful about the future of buses.

Metro chairman Clr James Lewis, travelled from Kippax to Huddersfield bus station yesterday to speak to staff and passengers.

And in a bid to get to grips with life at West Yorkshire’s busiest bus station, Clr Lewis got his hands dirty working as an ‘undercover boss’ of sorts.

While he was not there in secret, Clr Lewis did don a hi-visibility jacket to do a shift working for station bosses, cleaning toilets and fielding timetable enquiries.

Having spent a morning dealing with passengers, Clr Lewis, who took over as chief of the region’s public transport authority in June, said he had a better understanding of what bus users wanted.

He said: “I think it’s important to look at public transport not just in terms of major projects, plans and schemes. It’s about people and how we use it.”

Clr Lewis said he’d had good feedback from people in the station, but he was grilled by one gentleman who was unhappy that cancelled buses were not displayed on the screens.

He said: “Regular bus users have much better and more positive views of bus transport than your occasional users so we need to improve that.

“There are some big things we can do, like major infrastructure projects, but I think one is getting people who are not regular bus users on to the buses.”

Two-and-half years ago bus cuts by First saw the X10 between Holmfirth and Huddersfield axed and a recent report by the Passenger Transport Executive Group predicted bus passenger numbers would drop by 20% by 2014.

Clr Lewis said he sympathised with passengers when bus companies slashed routes that were not profitable.

And he said Metro was still pushing ahead with its Quality Bus Contracts plan to try and encourage bus operators to provide a better service.

The plan would see Metro control which routes are run, how often and what fares to charge.

He said: “It’s clear bus operators are feeling the pressure of rising fuel costs and cuts in subsidies but I’m told that one more paying passenger per service would cover their rising costs. If we can all work together and get more people on buses that’s as good approach as any to keeping fares down.

“I don’t always agree with the fares they charge or the profit levels they take but if there’s something we can do it’s promoting public transport and making it easy to use.”

Metro is currently trialling a smart card fare system – similar to London’s Oyster card – with over 60s passengers in Keighley.