A pair of new minibuses which take to the roads on Monday will bring the hope of new jobs to hundreds of people in inner city Bradford.

The service set up with the help of a £666,812 grant from the Department for Transport will link Little Horton with the Euroway Industrial Estate off Rooley Lane.

And today it was welcomed as a major boost for workers, job hunters and the community in the Little Horton and Trident area of the city.

A recent public consultation exercise in the area showed people saw Euroway as a key employment site but lack of public transport meant they could not compete for jobs there. MetroConnect 3 will be a flexible 'hail and ride' service which will also take people to health services such as Horton Park surgery and shops including Morrisons supermarket.

The service will be free for the first week.

The service has been developed by Metro, Bradford Trident regeneration project and Bradford City Teaching Primary Care Trust. The partnership made a successful bid to the Department for Transport for the project.

Metro chairman and Bradford Councillor Stanley King said: "I expect it to be popular and well used from day one, especially as it will be free for the first week."

James Murgatroyd manager of Invest in Bradford - a partnership made up of Bradford Council, Employment Services and Bradford Chamber of Commerce - said: "This project has been an excellent example of partnership working and will greatly increase the investment potential of the Euroway Industrial park.

"It will be a tremendous boost to the employment potential of the residents in the Little Horton and Trident areas of Bradford. This is good news in anyone's book."

The services which will be operated by a Bradford based company TLC will run half hourly during the week and every hour on Sundays. The new mini buses have low floors and easy access.