Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester are three cities in the north of the UK that are gaining popularity, predominantly among young people.
All three cities are part of a combined authority with a Metro Mayor who is responsible for transport across a larger area.
Liverpool City Region’s mayor is Steve Rotherham, West Yorkshire has Tracy Brabin and Greater Manchester has Andy Burnham.
But which city ranks the best in terms of getting around on public transport?
Tracy Brabin has recently committed to the £2 single ticket fare across the whole area and Andy Burnham has recently announced the Bee Network which nationalised buses in Greater Manchester.
All Change!
— Louise Haigh (@LouHaigh) July 11, 2024
Great to be in Greater Manchester to talk buses with @AndyBurnhamGM and meet passengers on my first official visit.
This Government’s bus revolution will hand power back to passengers and deliver better services across the country. pic.twitter.com/8kufQpR26L
Watchdog Transport Focus conducts surveys with public transport users and has provided the results from 2023 based on customer satisfaction with buses.
In terms of general satisfaction, Liverpool performs the best with an overall satisfaction rate of 83% compared to 80% in Greater Manchester and 73% in West Yorkshire.
However when you look at the degree of satisfaction, Greater Manchester has a higher proportion of people saying they are ‘very satisfied’ at 11% compared to 9% in West Yorkshire and 8% in Liverpool.
On the other side of the spectrum West Yorkshire had the highest percentage of customers saying they are ‘very dissatisfied’ with the service at 15%, compared to only slightly lower 12% in Greater Manchester and the lowest 7% in Liverpool.
Liverpool performed the best in terms of waiting times as 71% of people said they were satisfied with the time they waited compared to 67% in Greater Manchester and 61% in West Yorkshire.
However, the most common length of time to wait for a bus in Liverpool was five to nine minutes compared to Greater Manchester where the most common length of wait time was under five minutes.
In Greater Manchester 26% of people said they only had to wait less than five minutes for a bus compared to 21% in West Yorkshire and 29% in Liverpool.
And 70% of people in Greater Manchester found that the wait time was as they expected or less.
Liverpool has the best cost as 75% of people surveyed were satisfied with the value for money compared to 72% of people in Greater Manchester and only 69% in West Yorkshire.
Overall, Liverpool has the best customer satisfaction between the three regions.
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