INVESTING in more evening buses on West Yorkshire’s roads is not a high priority, the region’s transport bosses have said.

The absence of reliable public transport to and from big town and city centres late in the day is a bugbear for travellers across the region, with bus companies often reluctant to put on extra services they believe won’t make money.

But although the region’s politicians have cash they can use to subsidise services, that amount of money is being reduced by central government.

As a result, saving buses that run in rural areas and putting on early morning services before 7am are receiving more investment than other areas.

Cuts to bus subsidies likely to 'inconvenience' passengers

Neale Wallace, head of transport at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) which holds the purse strings, said that cash for evening buses was in short supply as a result.

Speaking at a town and parish council liasion group meeting in Wakefield on Wednesday, he said: “The bus operators are commercial companies who are looking to make money at the end of the day.

“Our priority is to make sure that bus services run to communities that would otherwise be cut off completely. That applies more to rural areas.

“The other priority is for early morning buses, which are generally about getting people to work and keeping them commercially active.

“So in the situation we’re in with budget constraints, the lowest priority is for evening services because they are generally about leisure time and socialising, rather than a need to travel.”

WYCA’s transport committee chair Kim Groves said she was aware that young people were having to turn down shift work, and that was why buses before 7am had to be prioritised.