Independent mayoral candidate, Keith Tordoff MBE visits First Bus York

Left to right  Keith Tordoff MBE, Andrew Cullen MD- First Bus North and West Yorkshire with Tom Donnelly - Head of Operations First Bus York and North Yorkshire

Keith Tordoff MBE, Independent Mayoral Candidate, met with First Bus North and West Yorkshire this week to hear about their business, and their views on what an incoming Mayor for York and North Yorkshire needs to be doing.

Manchester rolled-out Bee Buses in September 2023, an initiative to give more local control of bus services. It takes the bus services back 40 years, before the services were deregulated.

In Manchester, services on the network will be franchised to private companies to run but the local authority will set the fares, timetables and routes.

The change has both supporters and opponents. When buses were deregulated, ticket prices generally increased. But there are certainly sceptics on if a local authority can manage the costs.

Keith Tordoff MBE said:

It was very welcome to have a meeting to discuss strategic and operational Bus services for York and North Yorkshire.

They have a very impressive team and infrastructure, using mostly electric buses, with the 6 diesel buses going by end of February.

An incoming Mayor can work with First Bus and other Bus operators to offer integrated transport solutions  - that could be increasing services, particularly on an evening or a night, encouraging  park and ride and work to offer a services to communities in outlying areas.

The question if North Yorkshire needs a franchised model like the Bee Buses will need some looking at. I am aware that in some areas there is limited competition, or a dominate operator. However, one of my aims would be have more people use bus services, and that would initially be work on what is stopping people use the existing services, maybe that is cost, or frequency of service.

But with the changes coming in with a Mayor for the county, and the existing quality operators, this is an area to be genuinely excited and optimistic about.