Leeds City council leader James Lewis has called for the region to adopt an ‘Oyster Card’ transport ticketing system and new mobile phone app following the announcement of the latest phase of the city’s long-term transport plans.
Last week Leeds Council bosses published a much-anticipated document that sets out plans to encourage more people to use public transport with the aim of turning Leeds into a city where “nobody needs a car”.
Transforming public transport and bringing bus services in West Yorkshire back into public control had been one of new regional mayor Tracy Brabin’s key campaign pledges, and, speaking last week, Mr Lewis claimed that a revolution in ticketing is much needed for people in the district.
He said: “I would hope the Treasury would refocus their investment on public transport infrastructure – not just on relieving congestion at peak times, but on delivering a network where people do use a train throughout the week.
“There is an established model of transport investing which is based around ‘how do you move people around between 6am and 9am on a weekday morning?’ – that has changed because of the pandemic.
“If we want to meet our carbon objectives, we have to have better public transport. People are travelling at different times and for different reasons.
“We think the bus service in Leeds could be a lot better than it is – we are putting work on the ground to achieve that.
“If people have a simple Oyster-style ticket for West Yorkshire where they can hop on and off and know what the total cost will be, rather than having to have a lot of expert knowledge in terms of what tickets to buy.
“On my phone I have four different apps for different tickets in West Yorkshire – if we could get that all onto one app and people know that it will be good value for money – that will be part of it.
“It’s not a quick process, but it’s a challenge we put to the transport companies.”
The Oyster Card is a Smart ticketing system created by Transport for London (TfL) which enables passengers to use the same pre-paid card to travel on any part of the city’s public transport network. Similar Smart ticketing initiatives that facilitate flexible and more convenient travel are also in place across parts of the West Midlands and Nottingham.
As part of the new transport plans, Leeds City council is also aiming for a reduction of “up to 43 per cent” in CO2, a 30 per cent reduction in car mileage and a 130 per cent increase in bus usage over the next decade.
In order to help reach these objectives the transport plans document cites solutions such as driverless vehicles, charging employers for providing parking spaces to colleagues, and introducing a charging zone for high-polluting vehicles.
The paper also outlines aims to get funding to finally create a mass transit system for the city of Leeds.
After revealing the plans have recently gone out to public consultation, a Leeds City Council officer commented: “The majority of people liked the outline vision, but they wanted to know what we were going to do.
“To plan that out over a 10 year period, with the uncertainties around funding, isn’t really easy to do. So we are also going to publish an action plan for three years. After that we can re-evaluate that action plan to get us up to 2030.
“The targets we have set in terms of climate emergency are really challenging. Transport contributes to more than a third of emissions, so it is really difficult to do – particularly as West Yorkshire’s targets are for 2038 and national targets are for 2050.
“Leading the way on that agenda is going to be a challenge. Covid has caused a great deal of uncertainty around people’s travel habits.”
Lending his support to the city’s new transport plans, West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s expert transport panel chair Nigel Foster added: “The panel is supportive of the strategy. It is inclusive and aims to provide a range of choices around mobility to make sure people can get about and do what they need to do.
“We will make sure we work with the council to make sure they can bring in experience from elsewhere.”