Metro Chairman Cllr Chris Greaves was joined by Arriva Managing Director, Nigel Featham and Kirklees Cabinet member Cllr Peter McBride to officially sign a 'Performance Improvement Partnership' agreement for Kirklees.

By signing up to the PIP each of the three partnership organisations committed themselves to a range of measures that will improve bus travel for Arriva Yorkshire passengers in North Kirklees.

Reliability and punctuality

"Passengers tell us the key things they want from bus services are reliability and punctuality," said Metro Chairman Cllr Chris Greaves. "Metro, Arriva Yorkshire and Kirklees Council share the goal of trying to encourage more people to use buses and reduce local congestion, and the measures contained in this partnership agreement that we are signing will be a significant step towards achieving it."

The aim of the agreement ensures Arriva Yorkshire improves the punctuality and reliability of bus services across the Huddersfield area and reduces bus journey times by all practicable means.

Nigel Featham, Managing Director for Arriva in West Yorkshire, said: "We know that punctual buses are the number one requirement for our customers and the partnership will assist us to deliver an even better service for our passengers. We have seen great improvements over the last year in the Kirklees area and are delighted to be a part of the PIP."

Tough performance targets

Tough performance targets have been set for all parties to achieve goals that will benefit Arriva Yorkshire bus passengers. These include:

• Arriva Yorkshire running 99.5% of its annual timetabled bus journeys;
• a 95% target for all Arriva Yorkshire buses to start each journey on time.
• a 90% target for all ArrivaYorkshire buses to leave locations along the route punctually.

Metro and Kirklees Council will work in partnership with Arriva Yorkshire to meet these targets by:

• seeking to provide effective traffic management and bus priority measures
• taking enforcement action in respect of traffic offences
• seeking to minimise the disruptive side effect of works carried out on the highway upon bus services.

Councillor Peter McBride, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transportation in Kirklees, said: "Once again we are working in partnership to help improve the passenger experience for bus users. Punctuality is key to an effective public transport network and we will be keen to see this improve even further."