West Yorkshire Metro

In an ideal world I'd have my own jet. Well maybe a helicopter for easy access to the shopping and bar areas. Until that lottery win comes in though I'll have to settle for a fleet of Vespas. Whilst they are getting their service, it's back to the board and public transport ago.

Leeds is pretty well covered on the main buse routes and West Yorkshire Metro are the main suppliers. Now we all grumble about the service and standard in this country but I have to say Metro aren't half bad. What I will rave about is the free city centre buses, excellent. Metro's freecitybus links Leeds' rail and bus stations, business and shopping districts, the General Infirmary, Universities and Park Lane College. Not half bad Jack, especially as they run every few minutes from 6.30am till 7.30pm.

You'll also find plenty of buses taking you to the outskirts of the city. Particularly handy if you want to venture to the football at Elland Road or the rugby and cricket at Headingley.

They aren't perfect, but hell what is these days. However, after a day hitting the shops or getting home from work you really can't slam the service they provide.

West Yorkshire (Metro) is the main body of transportation in the West Yorkshire area including major cities such as Leeds when someone hears the word "Metro" they often associate it with light railway systems such as trams or the Underground (Subway) in London, but this is more of a brand together which operate and helps run all transport in the area, but for me other than having signs on buses (and certain train stations such as Leeds and Huddersfield) it's still hard to even understand what they actually do, with both buses and trains franchised out to operators, with First running the most bus services in the region, and trains in the region being run by a large number of operators such as LNER into London, TransPennine into Manchester/Liverpool/Huddersfield, CrossCountry into Birmingham and more.

The West Yorkshire Metro public transportation line for local services is again franchised out to Northern Railway - like most of the buses all Yorkshire Metro do is part fund these, the West Yorkshire Metro even goes outside of the region into Manchester Victoria, however, if you are going all the way this route is unnecessarily long, with the route with Northern into Manchester Victoria taking twice as long as the TPExpress route - so that begs the question why is Metro pushing the Northern route and funding that one, rather than the one which is the quickest for consumers with the nicer and newer trains.

I often find travel within the region to be a little more expensive than other parts of England, including South Yorkshire who has a much cheaper rate for public transportation which includes the Supertram, once again a lack of funding and innovative saw the Leeds Supertram which was supposed to be run by West Yorkshire Metro again fail and become defunct before it had even begun, and with buses running as irregular as Leeds United actually not bottling a season, a quicker, cheaper and easier way to travel around the city is needed. West Yorkshire Metro just seems careless through the services they are supposed to fund, offer and make better.

1*

Not sure when the previous review was written but the Leeds City buses haven't been free for almost two years. The cost is 50p. But I agree it is a handy little bus to get around town in and they are quite frequent, running Monday through Saturday.