Cheap Fares in Keighley

[deerfold]

The £1 fares on Keighley services have arrived (tomorrow).

I was surprised to find that as well as the current Keighley Local area it also covers the 62 to Steeton and the 66/M4 as far as Airedale Hospital. It's not clear if those are to be added to the Local ticket area or not.

www.transdevbus.co.uk/keighley/our-fares-are-falling-keighley

[mattb7tl]

For smaller towns the £2 fares weren't much of a deal, but £1?
That's absolutely brilliant!

[deerfold]

Sept 2, 2023 13:15:15 GMT 1 mattb7tl said:

For smaller towns the £2 fares weren't much of a deal, but £1?
That's absolutely brilliant!

Suits me very well - though now I'll have to wonder whether to get a Keighley Local Day ticket - it used to always be worth it if I was going into Keighley and home which worked well if I needed to do it again on the same day.

The £2 into town was already on improvement on the former £2.40 single (though back then a day ticket on the app was £2.66)

[Deleted]

Good to see more of the BSIP start to roll out, as it's funded by WCBA I Wonder if other operators are included as well like Jacksons or Team Pennine.

[deerfold]

Sept 2, 2023 15:35:16 GMT 1 @cp2012 said:

Good to see more of the BSIP start to roll out, as it's funded by WCBA I Wonder if other operators are included as well like Jacksons or Team Pennine.

I wondered about Jacksons's.

As Transdev Burnley's M4 is included I thought the 502 would be too, but it's not on the map.

[northerner]

Good to see this going ahead, hope it leads to an increase in passengers numbers.

[joseph]

What a mis-use of BSIP money, subsidising already cheap fares in a Micky Mouse town (I've worked there for the best part of a year and hated it, people living nearby in places like Bingley think it's a scar on the beautiful surrounding countryside, as for those flats, who the hell authorised those!) meanwhile large parts of highly successful, massively populated Leeds have to suffer Mickey Mouse evening bus services!

Take York Road for example, it's seen it's evening service provision plumet with last journeys on the 19 and 40 cut, the last 19 is 22.17, the last 40 on a Saturday is just after 10pm, thankfully they have the 163 up that way but it's still really poor that people have to wait from 22.17 til 23.05 or walk to Vicar Lane for the 164 at 22.45! Metro in this case should have used the BSIP money to enhance York and Selby Road services by funding the 164/5 through to Boar Lane on an evening. The last 5 is another example, a few years ago you could get one at something like 23.30 from the City Square area, now you're left walking from York or Selby Road if you miss the last one at 22.10 from Park Row, and they say you don't need a car up that way? I'd love to see Tracy Brabin have a late night walk from York Road to Osmondthorpe or Selby Road to the far end of Halton Moor. I've seen evening services up my way decimated over the past 2 years, service 1 after 9pm on a Saturday cut to hourly, the last service 75 recently axed leading to a large gap in evening provision, especially on a Saturday, the last 55 axed meaning Holbeck residents don't have any late night buses, I bet WYCA want them all to cycle home! Leeds is a heavily populated massive city, the last service 1 around 23.40 is always well used so I'm surprised they cut the last 75, WYCA should hang their heads in shame for allowing the Leeds bus network to be so decimated whilst it funds bus fares in a small town that already has cheap fares.

[deerfold]

Sept 3, 2023 8:29:34 GMT 1 joseph said:

What a mis-use of BSIP money, subsidising already cheap fares in a Micky Mouse town (I've worked there for the best part of a year and hated it, people living nearby in places like Bingley think it's a scar on the beautiful surrounding countryside, as for those flats, who the hell authorised those!) meanwhile large parts of highly successful, massively populated Leeds have to suffer Mickey Mouse evening bus services!

Take York Road for example, it's seen it's evening service provision plumet with last journeys on the 19 and 40 cut, the last 19 is 22.17, the last 40 on a Saturday is just after 10pm, thankfully they have the 163 up that way but it's still really poor that people have to wait from 22.17 til 23.05 or walk to Vicar Lane for the 164 at 22.45! Metro in this case should have used the BSIP money to enhance York and Selby Road services by funding the 164/5 through to Boar Lane on an evening. The last 5 is another example, a few years ago you could get one at something like 23.30 from the City Square area, now you're left walking from York or Selby Road if you miss the last one at 22.10 from Park Row, and they say you don't need a car up that way? I'd love to see Tracy Brabin have a late night walk from York Road to Osmondthorpe or Selby Road to the far end of Halton Moor. I've seen evening services up my way decimated over the past 2 years, service 1 after 9pm on a Saturday cut to hourly, the last service 75 recently axed leading to a large gap in evening provision, especially on a Saturday, the last 55 axed meaning Holbeck residents don't have any late night buses, I bet WYCA want them all to cycle home! Leeds is a heavily populated massive city, the last service 1 around 23.40 is always well used so I'm surprised they cut the last 75, WYCA should hang their heads in shame for allowing the Leeds bus network to be so decimated whilst it funds bus fares in a small town that already has cheap fares.

Not sure why this is an embarrassment. As understand it, it's a pilot to see if it encourages more bus use in a local area. You can't run a pilot like that in an area the size of Leeds.

You also need a cooperative partner bus company.

Plus the BSIP money has to be used for what was applied for. At the time of application it wasn't supposed to be used to support recently withdrawn services.

[northerner]

Indeed, Keighley is the ideal location to trial something like this. For a town of its size, it still has a decent number of local routes, lots of competition from local taxi firms and plenty of cheap/free parking.

[Deleted]

Sept 3, 2023 8:29:34 GMT 1 joseph said:

What a mis-use of BSIP money, subsidising already cheap fares in a Micky Mouse town (I've worked there for the best part of a year and hated it, people living nearby in places like Bingley think it's a scar on the beautiful surrounding countryside, as for those flats, who the hell authorised those!) meanwhile large parts of highly successful, massively populated Leeds have to suffer Mickey Mouse evening bus services!

Take York Road for example, it's seen it's evening service provision plumet with last journeys on the 19 and 40 cut, the last 19 is 22.17, the last 40 on a Saturday is just after 10pm, thankfully they have the 163 up that way but it's still really poor that people have to wait from 22.17 til 23.05 or walk to Vicar Lane for the 164 at 22.45! Metro in this case should have used the BSIP money to enhance York and Selby Road services by funding the 164/5 through to Boar Lane on an evening. The last 5 is another example, a few years ago you could get one at something like 23.30 from the City Square area, now you're left walking from York or Selby Road if you miss the last one at 22.10 from Park Row, and they say you don't need a car up that way? I'd love to see Tracy Brabin have a late night walk from York Road to Osmondthorpe or Selby Road to the far end of Halton Moor. I've seen evening services up my way decimated over the past 2 years, service 1 after 9pm on a Saturday cut to hourly, the last service 75 recently axed leading to a large gap in evening provision, especially on a Saturday, the last 55 axed meaning Holbeck residents don't have any late night buses, I bet WYCA want them all to cycle home! Leeds is a heavily populated massive city, the last service 1 around 23.40 is always well used so I'm surprised they cut the last 75, WYCA should hang their heads in shame for allowing the Leeds bus network to be so decimated whilst it funds bus fares in a small town that already has cheap fares.

So once again your annoyed that other parts of West Yorkshire are having money spent on it rather than just Leeds? Because you don't like Keighley there shouldn't be any bus improvement is a silly way to open your argument.

As someone who lives at the far end of York Road I Do agree evening services do need to be improved in time (although I find some of your suggestions questionable) but as the BSIP funding got won on the grounds of both fare reduction, better frequencies & improved infrastructure for West Yorkshire, it could leave them open to questions later if they just focused on Leeds the entire time.

As for WYCA 'hanging their heads in shame', the reality is most of them cuts you listed was the commercial choice of First & WYCA don't have the funds (nor should they have to) to keep plugging the gap. The only way all that can be fully fixed is some form of non-privatised operation (Nationalising/Franchising)

If any area is to be annoyed over BSIP spending it should be Wakefield/Castlefield/Pontefract as they are the ones that as of yet have had no BSIP plans put into action.

[mattb7tl]

I completely understand the frustration but you're guiding it towards the wrong people.
Keighley seems to be the only area to receive meaningful improvements because they have a company more than willing to cooperate.
First has demonstrated over the past year some proper childish behaviour walking out of meetings, making cuts despite from being in the best financial situation.
I perhaps suggest taking a look on bustimes, look at some first bus operations, and you'll quickly realise that the real issue is the company.
It's a first bus speciality to have massive areas with respectable bus usage and leave them without evening service. Main offenders being Worcester (funniest example being a bus route managing a 12 minute frequency, apparently can't handle journeys past 7pm?) and the whole of Stoke (250,000 people)
You'll struggle to find another operator with timetables so strange