New and innovative ways of providing public transport are always on the drawing board. As our roads become more and more choked with volumes of traffic they were never designed to handle, it does make sense to try to encourage people to leave their cars at home and use other methods of commuting or taking shopping or leisure trips.

That will only happen, though, if public transport is as close as it is possible to be in convenience to private cars. That means the alternative transport methods must be cheap, clean, safe and reliable. If that happens then the transport companies have a stronger argument to convince people to take the train or bus.

The latest idea for Bradford and West Yorkshire is to introduce London-style Routemaster buses to the streets. On the face of it, just another bus... but these are modelled on the old-style buses with “hop-on, hop-off” doors and platforms at the back, enabling quicker and easier access and exit from the vehicle.

They are also more environmentally friendly and can provide extra services such as free wi-fi which can act as a carrot to entice commuters on to them for regular journeys.

Perhaps the strongest argument in favour of this plan is that it is being suggested as an alternative to the £250 million trolleybus scheme being pushed forward by Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Integrated Transport.

While this scheme might merely provide more traditional buses with modern bells and whistles, it does look as though it could benefit the whole of West Yorkshire rather than being a very expensive trophy project that will mainly serve Leeds, as with the trolleybus scheme.