"Bus stops with no buses serving them are what you are going to get when you have a bus industry structure that allows private sector operators to stop and start services at will," said Metro Chairman Cllr Ryk Downes today.

Cllr Downes was responding to a local case where shortly after a replacement shelter was ordered, the local operating company changed its route, which meant buses no longer served the stop. The shelter, which is still used by pupils catching a school service, is now being removed and re-sited to another stop in the Wakefield District.

"The so-called bus industry market is also the reason for farcical situations like that we experienced in Bradford a few years ago, where after investing £300,000 to upgrade the city's Interchange for operators' articulated buses, the company deployed the vehicles elsewhere," said Cllr Downes.

"It is precisely to avoid these kind of events that we plan to use the powers recently made available to us by the Government to work towards regulated local bus services," he continued

"Only by specifying local routes, frequencies and fares can we start providing a stable integrated local network that people can rely on and where passengers can enjoy the savings of through-ticketing."

"People in London, where bus passenger numbers have risen, have enjoyed the benefits of this franchised structure for years," added Cllr Downes. "Metro thinks it's about time that people in West Yorkshire should enjoy the same benefits."