Bus Travel in Leeds

Buses are important to keep our city moving and working. They provide links to jobs, education, training, shopping and health services. Over 250,000 bus journeys are currently made every day in Leeds and 15% of the city’s working residents travel to work by bus.

Planning Your Journey by Bus

For tools to help you plan your bus journeys around Leeds and West Yorkshire visit Plan a Journey or check out this video about free and easy ways to check your next bus times. There are also lots of useful journey planning travel apps available to help you get around by public transport. Details about bus tickets and passes can be found here and check out Leeds City Bus for information about how to bus around the city centre. Click here for details about accessible transport, transport assistance and concessionary travel for blind and disabled passengers.  For information about travelling to school including; how to use school buses, school bus timetables, service changes and education passes and travel discounts visit www.wymetro.com/schools/.

West Yorkshire Bus Alliance.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority along with the City Region’s major bus companies, Arriva, First, Transdev and the Association of Bus Operators in West Yorkshire have developed a great new initiative to improve customer satisfaction and passenger experience. If you are not happy with your bus journey, you can claim a free travel voucher and if your last bus of the day doesn’t arrive within 20 minutes of its scheduled time, you can call a taxi, save the receipt and claim the cost back, click here for more information.

Transforming Bus Services in Leeds

Bus services in Leeds are undergoing a major transformation. Following extensive public consultation in 2016, the interim Leeds Transport Strategy was produced, including a vision to double bus patronage in Leeds within 10 years by promoting more bus operator investment for new, comfortable, and environmentally clean buses and by creating a new high frequency bus network, with one thousand more bus stops providing real time information and 90% of core bus services running every 10 minutes between 7am and 8pm.

City Centre Bus Improvements

Creating more route options and more reliable, convenient, attractive bus services will help the city in its ambition to tackle traffic congestion, improve air quality and respond to the climate emergency. New low emission vehicles (many ultra-low emission) are being introduced with comfier seats, free wi-fi, usb charge points and easier access, along with better bus stops and improved waiting facilities. Technology will also play its part with the provision of better service and timetable information and audio and/or visual next stop announcements. Tickets and passes will be much quicker and easier to buy with the arrival of contactless and smart phone payments. For more information about all the exciting plans and to take part in further consultations visit Connecting Leeds.

A key part of the bus infrastructure changes is a £20 million construction project which begins on The Headrow on 1 September 2019. This scheme will see significant improvements by autumn 2020, including new modern bus shelters, passenger waiting facilities, traffic routes, new ‘real time’ information screens and major landscaping. Bus stops and bus routes through the city centre will be affected during this time. For further information visit www.wymetro.com/theheadrow.

Park and Ride

The introduction of Leeds Park and Ride facilities have been hugely successful, with over 2 million journeys made so far. Each week, Park and Ride removes 9,000 cars from the city centre’s roads. The current Park and Ride fleet at Elland Road and Temple Green have been updated to ultra-low emission buses. The existing sites have been so successful that Connecting Leeds, alongside the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, have plans to expand the Elland Road site and add other new Park and Ride sites in the city.

Expansion at Elland Rd Park and Ride is already underway and is scheduled for completion in summer 2020. The site is expanding to provide an extra 550 spaces, creating 1,350 spaces in total in response to public demand. Once the site is complete, peak time bus frequency will increase to every 6 to 7 minutes to cope with additional passengers. There will also be some routing changes. For more information about existing and proposed services visit Park and Ride Leeds.

In January 2019, planning approval was given for a Park and Ride site located off the M621 in Stourton. The site will provide 1,200 spaces, including dedicated disabled, family and motorcycle bays and create a gateway into Leeds City centre from the M1/M621. It could be open and operational from 2020. Funding was also secured for five new fully electric buses from the Department for Transport to solely serve the site. Over one third of the spaces will be under solar canopies, allowing on-site bus and car charging. For more information visit Stourton Park and Ride.

Connecting Leeds have recently consulted with local residents, commuters and stakeholders on proposals for a Park and Ride facility at Alwoodley Gates, opposite The Grammar School at Leeds. This would be smaller than the other main sites in Leeds and would aim to reduce congestion into the city centre along Harrogate Road (A61). For more information or to receive updates visit Alwoodley Gate Park and Ride proposal.