Metro makes a reasonable job of running the buses and trains around the county. Many a frustrated passenger might challenge that statement, but those who dispute it should perhaps try the public transport available in some other parts of the country.

The area covered by the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority is vast, spanning five local-authority areas including Bradford. Logistically, planning and financing the bus and rail services which link those areas and criss-cross the region is already a massive task.

It is hardly surprising that, given the range of operators providing the service, things go wrong from time to time. And who knows if they will go wrong any less if Metro is scrapped, to be replaced by an Integrated Transport Authority as is to be proposed in a new Government Bill?

The hope is that by expanding the scope of the authority it will be given even more control over all transport planning rather than just passenger transport. There is felt to be a need for an organisation which can look at the roads network as well as the public vehicles which run on it. And the hope is that it would take us a major step nearer to what has been needed for so long: an integrated transport policy.

For the moment, though, they are just that - hopes. There is no guarantee that taking decisions on issues such as road planning with a broader brush on a wider canvas will benefit badly-needed local transport solutions. In fact, there is a real fear that, when push comes to shove, those who shout the loudest will reap the greatest reward.