MyDay, a new all-day, £2.60 county-wide bus ticket for West Yorkshire’s young people is being launched on Monday 9 July 2018.
Devised in consultation with young people from West Yorkshire, MyDay will be available to anyone aged under 19. The introductory £2.60 price will be fixed until the end of the year.
Leeds Youth Council organised young people’s focus groups to ensure MyDay is the product under-19s want. They worked with representatives of bus operators from the Bus18 initiative – Arriva, First and Transdev – along with the West Yorkshire Ticketing Company Ltd and West Yorkshire Combined Authority to develop the MyDay brand and the money-saving introductory price. Wakefield Youth Council and Honley School in Huddersfield also fed into the MyDay brand look and feel.
Arqam Al Hadeed, Member of UK Youth Parliament Leeds said:
As a youth MP who represents young people, I believe that MyDay ticket is a huge step towards resolving a longstanding issue amongst the young people of West Yorkshire. MyDay ticket provides the young people with affordable bus fare to travel to their schools, colleges and jobs. It is brilliant to see a great improvement in public transport in West Yorkshire for young people. I am excited to use better, tidy and affordable public transport this summer and beyond.
Cllr Kim Groves, Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee, said:
Making bus travel more attractive to young people, which will help reduce the environmental and economic costs of congestion, was one of our key aims when we set up Bus18.
Introducing the money-saving MyDay ticket will be the third initiative we have taken to achieve this. Since the start of the year we have dropped the need for those in school uniform to show proof of age passes, and this summer we are removing the requirement to show these passes for all under 16s.
These changes have all been in line with feedback from young people who will, I’m sure, be pleased to see they can be instrumental in bringing about real benefits.
Richard Armitage, Chair of West Yorkshire Ticketing Company, said:
We have been delighted to work with young people across the region who have been very enthusiastic about promoting public transport. Their tips and ideas have helped create our new MyDay ticket campaign and we hope that parents, teachers and children spread the word in the coming months, giving young people the freedom to travel independently and own their day.
MyDay will be a paper ticket bought on the bus and is valid all day, on any bus, anywhere in West Yorkshire for anyone aged under 19.
Although under-16s will no longer have to show their proof of age photocard, 17 and 18 year-olds may be asked to show their blue 16-18 PhotoCard.
