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.

The cards, which are pre-loaded to offer a scannable cashless system for drivers and a passengers, could be rolled out to cover the whole West Yorkshire public transport network.

“I would be really keen to see that,” Clr Lewis added.

“It needs to be on all buses and trains to stop drivers taking up time with people trying to find change or paying with a £20 note and make people feel buses are easy to use.”

While no major schemes are imminent in Kirklees, Clr Lewis said they were working on lots of little things to try and improve travel times and passengers’ experiences.

He said: “We’re working with Kirklees Council, looking a bus priority solutions to get them running more efficiently and more reliably.”

Metro works on behalf of the 2.1 million people of West Yorkshire, to coordinate public transport services.

It does this by:

Subsidising bus services

Funding local MetroTrain services

Running passenger facilities

Operating AccessBus services for disabled passengers

Managing prepaid tickets such as MetroCard and concessionary fares schemes

Leading transport development

Providing accurate, up-to-date information on all public transport services within West Yorkshire.