Around 125 young people from 13 West Yorkshire schools and youth groups attended Metro's Here to get Youth there, youth transport conference at Bradford’s Gratton Stadium on Wednesday 14 October.

Aimed at people aged from 11 to 19 from across West Yorkshire, Here to get Youth there was an opportunity to discuss the issues they consider important about bus and train travel, and to feed their ideas and concerns back to Metro.

Delegates ran and took part in workshops covering a range of issues around fares, information, safety and security, customer service and bus design and access.

The day finished with a discussion session chaired by Metro Chairman Cllr Ryk Downes, and including guests from local bus operators First and Transdev.

Delegates asked a range of questions around the use of CCTV, cleanliness of buses, wheelchair access and simplified timetables. Fares and ticketing were also an important topic.

"While we had some idea of what we thought young people's views about public transport were, yesterday's conference really gave us an opportunity to discuss them in detail," said Metro Chairman, Councillor Ryk Downes.

"We now need to make sure that we address their ideas and concerns."

Metro has pledged to raise the issues discussed at the 'Here to get Youth there' conference at its regular meetings with bus operators and through the Youth Transport Forum, which is made up of representatives from West Yorkshire’s Youth Councils and Youth Parliaments. The findings from Here to get Youth there will be reported back to delegates.

Metro's Education Transport Manager, Alison Pilling said, "We would like to thank everyone involved in making today's event such a success."

Among the organisations that helped Metro coordinate and run the conference were Kirklees Youth Council and the IYCE project, The Project Leeds, Bradford and Keighley Youth Parliament, The Gratton Stadium Odsal, First, Transdev, Education Leeds and all the schools and youth groups that took part.