Bus service cuts come into force

The cuts mainly affect services in the evening and at weekends

Controversial changes to bus services in West Yorkshire have come into force with dozens of routes either being altered or scrapped.

Bus operator First, which runs the network, said it was axing some routes because there were too few passengers to justify keeping buses on the road.

Alterations had been made to other routes in a bid to make them viable.

But councillor Ryk Downes, chairman of transport authority Metro, said: "We would like to have seen very few cuts."

He said his own local bus service had been cut despite being relatively popular.

'I despair'

"When I travelled on it last month with my daughters there were a total of 45 passengers on that bus," he said.

"Now, if First can't make money from those sort of numbers I despair."

Dave Alexander, managing director of First in West and North Yorkshire, said: "In the current economic climate, First has to structure its business to meet the demand of its customers.

"In some areas of West Yorkshire, and on some routes, we are seeing a decline in the number of people using our services and therefore we have to make changes so as to maintain the commercial viability of these services."

Most of the cuts are planned for evenings and weekends but Metro said that could mean that 14% of passengers will desert the network completely.

The company said that in the last 12 months it had invested more than £35m in its business in the region and had committed a further £12m in the current year.