Members of Metro's Tendered Services Working Group meeting have approved funding for three vital services.

New, off-peak bus journeys between Halifax and Thornton, Bradford will start from Monday 14 December, funded on a 'use it or lose it' basis until July 2010. Service 505 will arrive in Halifax at around 9.45am and leave at around 1pm,

From January 2010, MetroConnect service MC4 will be re-numbered as E8, and will extended to run hourly between Barkisland, Greetland, Elland and Brighouse.

The new service will provide links to the local shopping and leisure centres in Elland and Brighouse, as well as providing interchange opportunities for passengers to Huddersfield and Halifax from West Vale and Elland.

Services will run Monday to Saturday daytime, and will be timed to integrate with the current local Elland minibus services.

Service 923 between Otley, Wetherby and Tadcaster has been extended until October 2011.

Jointly funded by Metro and North Yorkshire County Council, the service has been extended and enhanced since it was introduced in 1999. Starting as a limited service between Otley and Wetherby on four days a week, it became a Monday to Saturday service in 2005, before being extended to Tadcaster in 2007.

A report to the Working Group highlighted service 923's role in providing access to employment as well as to leisure and tourist areas such as Otley and Harewood House. It is also the only means of travelling by public transport between the three towns and the villages in-between.

Details of the new services will be available from this web site when they start, and in printed timetables available from Bradford Interchange, Halifax Bus Station and Leeds Bus Station Travel Centre.