Unofficial fan network
WeaverBuses · Trains · Trams

Unofficial fan guide · West Yorkshire

Built to connect, not to compete.

West Yorkshire’s buses, trains and future trams are being pulled together under one name: Weaver. From May 2027 the buses start coming back under public control. This site is about what that could mean if it’s done properly: the bus waits for the train, one ticket gets you there, and nobody has to watch tail lights disappear from the station steps.

Try the two-minute problem What’s happening

Announced officially announced, with sourcesOur view what we fans think

From loose threads to a woven network Five frayed, tangled threads, one for each district of West Yorkshire, straighten out and are woven together with threads for bus, rail, tram and walking. The tram thread is drawn dashed because it is still to come. BUS RAIL TRAM WALK Leeds Bradford Calderdale Kirklees Wakefield
Five districts, four ways to travel, one fabric. (Our illustration.)

Where things stand · 4 October 2026

The brand’s here. The buses are next.

Weaver is already a name and a set of signs. It isn’t yet a different bus service: the first publicly controlled buses run from May 2027.

  1. 12 May 2025Brand announcedWeaver is set to replace the Metro name across the network.
  2. 2026Signs going upHeckmondwike bus station first. Rail agreement signed in the summer.
  3. May 2027First Weaver busesPhase 1: Huddersfield, Dewsbury and parts of Leeds. Website and app launch.
  4. Early 2028Phase 2Mainly parts of Leeds and Wakefield.
  5. By 2028Tram groundworkThe “spades in the ground” pledge: preparatory works.
  6. Late 2028Every bus in public handsPhase 3: Bradford, Calderdale, rest of Wakefield. Rail vision due.
  7. Late 2030sFirst tramsThe current expectation, after an independent review.

The argument in brief

Right now it’s not a network. It’s a knot.

Since deregulation in October 1986, private bus companies outside London have set their own routes, timetables and fares. By May 2025, 19 different operators were running buses in West Yorkshire, and the trains are run by different firms again. Everybody plans their own bit. Nobody plans your journey.

The two-minute miss

Your train pulls in at :58. The bus home left at :56. Nobody planned it that way, and that’s the problem: nobody was planning it at all.

Timetables in silos

Each operator times its own services for its own reasons. A connection with somebody else’s train is a happy accident, not a design goal.

Tickets that don’t talk

MCard helps, but working out which ticket covers which bit of a bus-and-train trip is still homework you shouldn’t have to do.

Nobody owns the journey

When the connection fails, whose fault is it? The bus firm’s, the train firm’s? In practice it’s nobody’s, so it never gets fixed.

Announced

What’s changing

  • Buses come back under public control. Franchised Weaver buses start in May 2027, and the whole county is covered by the end of 2028.
  • The Combined Authority decides routes, timetables and fares, not private companies. Operators run the buses under contract.
  • A rail agreement (summer 2026) with Network Rail, Northern, TransPennine Express and LNER includes integrating rail with the rest of the network.
  • Trams will join the brand when West Yorkshire Mass Transit arrives.
Our view

What it should add up to

  • Control of the timetable is the big prize. For the first time in nearly 40 years, buses can be timed to meet trains on purpose.
  • New paint is nice; connections are what count. Judge Weaver by the walk from platform to bus stop, not the livery.
  • Plan for journeys, not operators. A network is only as good as its worst connection.

Explore

Four threads, one network

The facts on each part of the network, then our case for how they should fit together.

Buses

Green, electric, and back under public control from May 2027. Franchising in plain English, the rollout, the new buses and what fares might do.

The new buses
193new Wrightbus electric buses on order

Trains

A new agreement with the railway, two new stations in the pipeline, a major line upgrade, and the job of plugging every station into the bus network.

The trains
69railway stations in West Yorkshire

Trams

A Leeds Line and a Bradford Line, funded but delayed. The honest version, from Supertram to the late 2030s.

The trams
£2.1bn2025 Spending Review settlement for West Yorkshire transport

Joined-up

The heart of this site: how an integrated network should work, with a connection simulator and a pulse timetable you can watch.

The fan manifesto
2 minthe gap that wrecks a journey

The two-minute problem

Same buses. Different minute past the hour.

It’s a very West Yorkshire experience: you step off the train just in time to see your bus pull away, and the next one is half an hour off.

Here’s the thing. You often don’t need more buses to fix that. Keep the same bus every 30 minutes, move it eight minutes later, and the wait shrinks to almost nothing. Under franchising the timetable becomes a public decision, so this is now something we can actually ask for.

Run the connection simulator

Illustrative example: the same half-hourly bus, timed two ways Today: the train arrives at 17:58 but the bus left at 17:56, so after a three-minute walk the passenger waits 25 minutes for the 18:26. Joined-up: the bus is retimed to 18:04, so the passenger waits only 3 minutes. TODAY 17:58 17:56 25-minute wait 18:26 JOINED-UP 17:58 18:04 3-minute wait bus timed to meet the train

Illustrative Invented times to show the principle, not a real timetable.

West Yorkshire by numbers

A big network to stitch together

5
districts: Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield
~14,000
bus stops
69
railway stations
19
bus operators running in May 2025
~40
years since buses were last under public control

Elsewhere in the fan network

More Weaver, from fellow fans

Why “Weaver”? weaver-network.uk: the name, the wool heritage, and why Metro is going. Live tracker & timetables weavernetworkuk.com: where the buses are and when they’re due.
Next · 1 of 4 The new buses Franchising in plain English, the 2027–2028 rollout and the 193 electric buses.

Sources

Facts on this page come from the sources below, checked on 4 October 2026. Anything marked “Our view” is opinion. Spotted an error? The official word is always the Combined Authority’s.

  1. West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Weaver Network (brand, franchising, districts, signage, app).
  2. Wikipedia, Weaver Network (West Yorkshire) (brand launch date, 14,000 stops, 69 stations, deregulation history, 19 operators).
  3. Public Sector Executive, West Yorkshire signs first bus franchising contracts (phase dates).
  4. WYCA news, New electric buses deal (193 Wrightbus buses).
  5. WYCA news, Rail agreement to deliver better journeys (30 June 2026).
  6. Yorkshire Evening Post, £2.1bn funding for West Yorkshire transport.
  7. Yorkshire Post, Mass transit delayed (late 2030s; 2028 construction pledge).