THE BOXING Day bus service is to be improved.
For the first time a service from Kirkburton and Denby Dale will run into Huddersfield on December 26.
Buses into Huddersfield and Leeds will run as they have in the past two years on Boxing Day.
But fares will increase from £2 to £3 for all day travel.
Meanwhile, voluntary groups will run buses over the festive period to supplement public transport.
The Green Party will put on a minibus for the 18th year running. The free service will go from Berry Brow to Newsome, the town centre, Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Mount.
The 17-seat bus will run on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. It may also run on Boxing Day.
Clr Andrew Cooper will be driving the bus. The Newsome Green Party member said: “We pick up when the regular service stops.
“At Christmas people want to get out of the house and go into town to have a few drinks without having to pay a high taxi fare. If Town are playing at home on New Year’s Day we get a lot of fans going to the stadium.”
The Green Party had planned to run a bus from Shepley, through Kirkburton to Huddersfield. But Clr Cooper said yesterday that the Party would study Metro’s plan for a Boxing Day service in the area before deciding whether to go ahead.
Metro announced the bus services for Christmas at yesterday’s meeting of the Kirklees Passenger Consultative Committee in Huddersfield Town Hall.
There will be a Saturday service on Christmas Eve until 6pm, with no buses at all on Christmas Day.
A Sunday service will run on December 27 and 28, followed by a Saturday service on December 29 and 30. There will also be a Saturday service on New Year’s Eve until 6pm, with no buses at all the following day.
The meeting was also updated on a new bus service to connect villages to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
The 338 will begin next month, running from Meltham, through Linthwaite and Milnsbridge, to the hospital.
The new service will operate between 9am and 5pm.
Kirklees Passenger Consultative Committee chairman Clr Tony Brice told the meeting that some young people had complained they had to pay full fare on First buses after 9pm despite having a day pass.
He said: “The passes from First are time-related.”
