There is a fair amount of criticism levelled regularly at Leeds and West Yorkshire buses.
There have been calls to nationalise the services as people across the county criticise them for being unreliable, expensive and infrequent. Calls have been made by campaign groups like Better Buses for West Yorkshire and even Leeds councillors.
West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin has taken aim at bus complaints with her Bus Service Improvement Plan. The plan aims to evolve an 'Enhanced Partnership' between the Combined Authority and bus operators in which they will work together to improve services.
Read more: Leeds girl, 10, 'desperate to make friends' has been rejected by every school in the city
But first, to see what using buses around here is as bad as all that, we at LeedsLive decided to set out from one side of Leeds to the other travelling only by bus.
We settled on heading from Kippax in the east of Leeds to Pudsey out in the west. Driving, this is a 16.8-mile journey that takes just under 40 minutes.
When I set out to Kippax to get started on this I thought 'Leeds is a busy city and neither of these are particularly remote areas - it can't possibly be that bad'.
I arrived at Cross Hills bus stop in Kippax at 11.47am on a midweek day. It was hot and sunny and I didn't feel particularly excited about the prospect of spending the afternoon on a bus.
At the bus stop, I met couple Andrena and Colin Eastwood, as well as another man who told me: "It'll be along soon, love."
And he was right - I'd expected to wait about 10 minutes for a 163 service, but the slightly delayed 166 Arriva Sapphire service showed up within minutes of my arrival.
It was relatively busy on board as people headed out to enjoy the sun. I purchased a single to Leeds City Square for £3.50 and we set off from Cross Hills around 11.52am.
It took us 10 minutes just to get out of Kippax, during which time I got chatting to my fellow passenger Peter Bates. He had been running in Kippax and was headed home to Seacroft.
Peter told me: "I don't use this service all the time but it's not that reliable. Sometimes buses don't turn up and in general Leeds is just awful for traffic. With the road works at the moment at rush hour getting anywhere on the roads can take double the time.
"This starts in Castleford and people tell me they prefer to get the train from there because it's so slow. I'm retired and have a bus pass so this works for me. It's still a good service though, apart from when it's delayed there's usually a 163 or 166 every 15 minutes."
The sun was out in force by this point and the front seat on the top deck felt like a greenhouse. Peter and several others got off at Crossgates Railways Station, presumably to go and enjoy a much quicker train into Leeds.
I went downstairs to get out of the sun, and ran into Andrena and Colin again, who had also gotten on the bus in Kippax.
Andrena told me: "The buses from Kippax aren't bad - we use them about three times a week. They don’t always show up on time but they’re easy to work. They’re accessible and cheap - we can’t afford to park in Leeds.
“From Kippax two weeks ago we waited 45 minutes for a bus at 9am until quarter to 10 on a Monday. We had booked a tour of the museum library and we would have missed it if the woman doing the tour wasn’t also waiting for the delayed bus!
"That's the only time it's been that bad for us, but we would've been really upset if we'd missed something we paid for because the bus didn't turn up."
As we crossed the hour mark, we were making our way along Vicar Lane in Leeds city centre.
Pretty much everyone on the bus got off at Duncan Street (and thanked the driver), bar me and another woman, who was confused about Arriva bus changes
Arriva has recently made several changes to its timetables, including to where some of its services stop in Leeds city centre. An Arriva employee helping the other passenger said the changes had been "confusing" for some, but that drivers knew where they were going.
When I asked if the service ever experienced any problems with antisocial behaviour as some services do, I was told: "We did used to sometimes have problems at night with rowdy kids getting on at night and doing things like running up and down an damaging the buses.
"But we have security at night now and it's much better."
We arrived at City Square just after 1pm, meaning the journey from Kippax took around an hour and 10 minutes. I got off the bus and headed across the square in envy of all the people eating outdoors.
My next bus would go from just four minutes walk away on Wellington Street. As per Google Maps' recommendation, I was planning to get the X11 service, run by First Bradford, across to Pudsey.
I was therefore pleased when an X11 showed up within minutes of me arriving at the stop, though thought we were going to end up with an article where I gained no first-hand experiences of bus problems. Me and the other man at the bus stop put our arms out in plenty of time to signal the bus, and...
... It drove right past. Convenient.
The other man threw up his arms in frustration, and I grimaced at the timetable that told me there wouldn't be another X11 for half an hour.
It was at this point I got talking to Tasha, also at the bus stop, who hadn't attempted to signal the X11.
"I use the bus about once a week but sometimes they just don’t turn up. I work at the LGI and I’ve had ones not turn up and struggled to get to work as a result. The 72 always cancels and those things can often make it difficult. I always get the 4 now because it’s more reliable. Though it’s been saying due on my app for at least five minutes now.”
Tasha was also heading back to Pudsey, so on her recommendation, I got on the 4F Leeds City service that turned up minutes later. I got on about 1.18pm, and paid £2.90 for a single to Pudsey Bus Station.
I remembered to sit in the shade this time, thankfully, and we began to make our way west. We passed the LeedsLive offices at one point on our route through Leeds, where I'd started the day before heading to Kippax, which felt sort of full-circle and sort of depressing.
It took us about half an hour to make the journey up to Pudsey, but in general it was fairly smooth.
We pulled into Pudsey Bus Station at 1.49pm exactly, and I disembarked, arriving at my destination almost exactly two hours after setting off.
So yes, I could have got a train from York to London in that same time, but in general, the long journey didn't make me want to rip my eyeballs out of my skull as much as I'd expected.
That, however, is said with the caveat that I wasn't trying to get to work or something I'd arranged on time, which we all know would have made this 1000x more frustrating. Regardless of there being only one real bump in my journey, the length of time it took and the experiences of regular bus riders showed our public transport is in dire need of help.
So, yeah, I decided to book an Uber back home.
The driver turned up within five minutes. When I told him what I'd been doing, he laughed.
A spokesperson for Arriva said: "We’ve been working with West Yorkshire Combined Authority as part of the West Yorkshire Bus Alliance, to offer passengers a consistent route in Leeds City Centre for common corridors. For the 166, this has meant using Boar Lane in both directions between the Bus Station and the Railway Station.
"The Bus Alliance’s new Network Navigation helps passengers find their bus in the city centre using colours and line names to group services together. That same colour is used on maps, on bus stop flags and at shelters in the city.
"The 166, and sister route 163, together form a combined service between Castleford, Kippax, Garforth and Leeds up to every 15 minutes. We do run a faster bus between Kippax and Leeds at peak times, X60, which using the motorway for a quicker journey at a time or day when there is more demand."
A spokesperson for First Bradford said: “If a customer is unhappy about an aspect of driver behaviour they should contact our customer services team with details of the time of day and service number and we will investigate. This helps us to ensure driving standards are maintained and that customers have an enjoyable experience when travelling with us.
“We do everything we can to maintain a comprehensive network of services that supports our customers and our communities. When we have to introduce a cancellation, we try to ensure that customers have advance notice of this so that we minimise any disruption to their journey.”
First Bradford added that cancellations can happen for a number of reasons including congestion, traffic incidents and other factors they can't control. It also said the 72 route is one of the first to have new ultra-low emission buses introduced last month.
How do you find using buses in Leeds? Have your say in the comments!
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