West Yorkshire ITA Chairman Cllr James Lewis has said he is pleased that the Competition Commission's report on the bus industry underpins Metro's work to get a better deal for the county's bus passengers.

"The underlying principle for our work on this has been to achieve better services and value for bus users in West Yorkshire and to halt the ongoing decline in passenger numbers," he said.

"I am pleased that the Commission has recognised that competition is not the sole solution to providing passengers with a better deal and that in metropolitan areas such as ours where bus operators benefit from a near monopoly, franchising along the line of Quality Contracts that Metro has been investigating, can be an appropriate way of achieving wider solutions.

"Integrated tickets which can be used on different operators' services are another issue which bus passengers regularly raise with me so I am pleased to see that the Commission has also identified multi-operator ticketing in its package of remedies."

Cllr Lewis said Metro officers would be looking closely at the full contents of the Commission's report.