Metro and the five West Yorkshire District Councils which make up the Local Transport Plan Partnership have been rewarded with £1,198,674 for their work to tackle the effects of urban congestion in West Yorkshire. Since 2007, all large urban areas have had to set and agree targets for traffic congestion with the Department for Transport.

Plans have been developed to tackle congestion by keeping journey time increases in line with targets where overall volumes of travel are increasing. Measure such as new and extended bus lanes, vehicle tracking systems which give buses priority at traffic lights and work to enforce bus lanes have all contributed to the success.

"It is important that that we tackle congestion and attracting this considerable chunk of funding by exceeding targets will enable Metro and its partners to introduce even more-extensive measures to keep journey times down," said Metro Chairman Councillor Chris Greaves.

"These include more bus gates, bus lanes and junction improvements.

"The benefits of these should help us stay ahead of the DfT's targets, which opens the door to a further £1m of extra funding over the next two years, which would, in turn, enable us to implement even more congestion-beating projects," he added.

Link to information about pre-paid tickets which can speed up journey times and save you money.

Find out more about the West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan.