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WeaverWhy the name changed

Why “Weaver”? · A fan’s explainer

Same hills. Same mills. One network.

Metro is becoming the Weaver Network, and from spring 2027 West Yorkshire’s buses start coming back under public control for the first time since 1986. Here’s why the name changed, and what it means for Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield.

Written by a West Yorkshire bus fanLast checked About a 15-minute read

Five threads, one clothFive coloured threads, labelled Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield, unwind from separate bobbins and wander loose on the left. Towards the middle they gather together and weave over and under green warp threads into a single strip of cloth that runs off to the right. Leeds Bradford Calderdale Kirklees Wakefield Woven together: one networkPull one thread and it slides straight out.Weave them, and the cloth holds. Five threads, one clothFive coloured threads labelled Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield start out loose and separate, then gather and weave over and under green warp threads into a single strip of cloth. Leeds Bradford Calderdale Kirklees Wakefield
Five districts, one cloth. Each coloured thread stands for one of West Yorkshire’s five districts; the green warp is the network that binds them together. (Our illustration, not official artwork.)

The short version

Five stops · no changes

  1. Metro is retiring.

    The Weaver Network is the new name for public transport across West Yorkshire: buses, trains, walking, wheeling and cycling, with trams to join when they arrive. The old WYMetro brand is due to be retired in 2027.

  2. The buses come back under public control.

    From spring 2027 the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, not private companies, decides routes, timetables and fares. Bus firms run the services under contract. The aim is to cover the whole county by the end of 2028.

  3. The name is a nod to the mills.

    West Yorkshire was built on wool. Think of routes as threads: woven together, they make something stronger than any one of them. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage had a hand in choosing it.

  4. You’ll see it before you ride it.

    Green Weaver shelters and signs are already going up. Heckmondwike’s rebuilt bus station opened in September 2026 as the first in the new brand. A Weaver website and app are due in 2027 with the first buses.

  5. 193 new electric buses are on order.

    They’ll have charging at every seat, room for two wheelchairs, and seat fabric made by a textile firm based in Huddersfield.

By the numbers

19

different bus operators were running in West Yorkshire by May 2025

14,000

bus stops, plus 69 railway stations, across the five districts

193

new electric buses ordered from Wrightbus for the publicly controlled fleet

2028

the target year for every bus in the county to be under public control

Figures from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Wikipedia. See sources.

Fact file

What
West Yorkshire’s integrated public transport network, and its new name
Replaces
The WYMetro brand
Covers
Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield
Includes
Buses, trains, walking, wheeling and cycling, with trams to come
Run by
West Yorkshire Combined Authority, led by the Mayor of West Yorkshire
Unveiled

01 The story so far

Goodbye, Metro

To understand the new name, go back to the day the buses were let off the leash.

On 1 April 1974, West Yorkshire became a county. The same day, the new West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive took over the council bus fleets of Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax. Out went Bradford’s light blue, Huddersfield’s red and Leeds’ two-tone green. In came one livery, officially “Verona green and buttermilk”, and before long the name that stuck for half a century: Metro.

Then came the Transport Act 1985. On 26 October 1986, buses outside London were deregulated. Any licensed operator could register a route, set its own timetable and charge its own fares, provided it could make the sums add up. The PTE’s own buses became Yorkshire Rider, which was sold to a management buyout in 1988. In 1995 it was bought by the group that became First West Yorkshire. Metro carried on as the bit in the middle: the timetables, the shelters, the multi-operator tickets and the subsidised services nobody else would run.

Fast forward to 2025 and nineteen different operators were running buses in the county. According to the Combined Authority, more than 80% of the network is run by private operators who decide the routes, frequencies and timetables. The public side pays for extra services and cheaper fares around the edges.

For forty years, West Yorkshire’s bus map was drawn by whoever could make it pay.

That isn’t a dig at the drivers, or even really at the companies. They were playing by the rules they were given. But a network nobody plans as a whole tends to fray in predictable places.

Pile-ups on the money routes

On the busiest corridors, rival operators can end up chasing the same passengers.

Gaps where it doesn’t pay

Quieter estates, villages and late evenings rely on public subsidy, and can be cut when money is tight.

A ticket for every firm

Plenty of tickets only work on one company’s buses. MCard’s multi-operator tickets help, but it’s one more thing to work out.

Timetables that don’t talk

Each operator plans its own timetable, so a connection between two firms’ buses is often luck, not design.

The fix was a change in the law. The Bus Services Act 2017 gave mayoral combined authorities the power to franchise their buses. Greater Manchester went first. West Yorkshire consulted the public between October 2023 and January 2024, a large majority backed the idea, and on 14 March 2024 the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, confirmed the county would follow.

Metro served us for half a century. But a new way of running the buses deserved a name of its own, and preferably one that sounded like here.

02 The name

Why “Weaver”?

Because this is a county that was, quite literally, woven together.

Before the buses there was wool. For the best part of two centuries West Yorkshire’s valleys clattered with looms, and its towns were built on cloth. The stone mills and chimneys still standing along the Aire, the Calder and the Colne are the giveaway. When the Combined Authority went looking for a name with roots, it didn’t have to look far.

The official line is that the name is inspired by West Yorkshire’s textile heritage and cultural diversity. It was picked after what the Combined Authority calls extensive work on the region’s cultural identity. Every one of the five districts has a thread in that story.

Leeds

Thread: madder

Armley Mills, on the Aire, was once the world’s largest woollen mill. Today it’s Leeds Industrial Museum, still full of the machines that made the city.

Bradford

Thread: indigo

The worsted capital of the world: “Worstedopolis”, as the historian William Cudworth called it in 1888. Just up the road, Titus Salt’s model village at Saltaire is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Calderdale

Thread: heather

Halifax’s Piece Hall opened on 1 January 1779, with 315 rooms where handloom weavers sold their “pieces” of cloth. It’s still a showstopper.

Kirklees

Thread: weld

In 1813 Batley’s Benjamin Law found a way to grind old rags back into usable fibre. The result was shoddy, and later mungo. The Heavy Woollen District was recycling cloth two centuries before it was trendy.

Wakefield

Thread: rhubarb

By the 1850s Ossett, on the Calder, had over forty mills. Bales of rags arrived by rail from all over the UK and Europe to be turned into new cloth.

In the poet’s words

The Combined Authority says the name was chosen with input from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. He grew up in Marsden, up the Colne Valley in Kirklees, which is mill country if ever there was. This is what he said, as published on the official Weaver Network page:

To me, the Weaver Network name symbolises the threads connecting people with places, shuttling to and fro, built on heritage and creating new ties and links.

Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, quoted by West Yorkshire Combined Authority

Saris, wax prints and tweed

The look of the brand pulls the same trick. The Combined Authority says it draws on sari prints, African wax prints and Yorkshire tweeds, with nods to David Hockney, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. That mix is the point. The mills that made this county pulled in workers from far and wide. After the Second World War that included the Caribbean and South Asia. Many Caribbean women worked in the woollen mills, many Caribbean men became bus conductors and drivers in Leeds and Huddersfield, and Bradford’s textile industry came to rely on workers from South Asia. A brand that puts a sari print next to a tweed is just being honest about who’s on the bus.

Even the seats are in on it. The moquette for the new buses is being made by Huddersfield-based Camira Fabrics from wool supplied by British Wool in Bradford, in a patchwork design inspired by the people and places of West Yorkshire. Camira says it makes all of the seat fabric for the London Underground. So if you’ve sat down on the Tube, you’ve already sat on a bit of Kirklees.

Warp and weft, close up A close-up of plain-woven cloth. Seven green vertical warp threads, marked A, are crossed by five coloured horizontal weft threads, marked B, each going over one warp and under the next. The woven area is marked C. Below, a dashed outline of a thicker thread, marked D, shows a future thread still to be woven in. A B C D
Plain weave, close up: over one, under the next.

Warp, weft and why it matters

On a loom, the warp is the set of long threads stretched tight from end to end. The weft is the thread the shuttle carries across them, over one and under the next, back and forth. Neither is cloth on its own. Pull a single thread and it slides straight out. Weave them and you’ve got something that holds in a Pennine gale.

The warp: rail lines
Long, straight and fixed, running up and down the valleys between the big towns.
The weft: buses
Crossing between the lines, over and under, reaching every estate, village and high street the railway can’t. Armitage’s “shuttling to and fro” is a bus driver’s whole day.
The cloth: the network
One brand, one map, tickets that work across it and timetables that meet. It’s the bit that holds together when you pull on it.
A new thread: trams
Planned for Leeds and Bradford. It’s a stronger thread through the middle, though not one we’ll ride until the late 2030s.

One thread snaps.
Cloth holds.

03 On the street

What actually changes

“Franchising” is a dull word for a big shift. Here’s what it means in practice.

Under franchising, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority designs the bus network. That’s the public body led by the elected Mayor of West Yorkshire, working with the councils. It decides the routes, the timetables, the fares and the standards. Bus companies bid for contracts and then run the services to that public specification.

Money from fares goes to the public side, and the Combined Authority says it will go back into improving services. For the larger contracts, the Combined Authority will also own most of the buses and depots. That means if an operator walks away or loses a contract, the buses don’t go with it.

Plans and pays

The Combined Authority

Sets routes, timetables, fares and standards for every franchised bus. It owns the new electric fleet and leases it to operators, and it answers to voters through the Mayor.

Runs and drives

The operators

Bus companies win contracts in a competitive tender. They employ the drivers and run the services, and they’re held to account against the public specification.

Rides

You

One brand, one map, a Weaver website and app from 2027, and tickets designed to work on every Weaver bus, whichever company is driving it.

Before and after, at a glance
Today (deregulated) Weaver (franchised)
Who decides routes and timetables? Mostly the bus companies, on commercial grounds, with public money filling some gaps The Combined Authority, planning the network as a whole
Who sets fares? Each operator, with the Mayor’s Fares capping a single at £2.50 and a DaySaver at £6 The Combined Authority, across every franchised bus
Tickets Many only work on one company’s buses; MCard covers multi-operator travel Simpler tickets designed to work whichever company runs the bus
What it looks like A patchwork of operator colours and logos One distinctive green livery, one brand, one map
Information WYMetro, plus separate operator apps and websites A Weaver website and app from 2027, with joined-up journey planning and real-time updates promised
Who owns the buses? The operators For the larger contracts, mostly the Combined Authority, which leases them to operators
If it goes wrong, who answers? A private company’s management The Combined Authority and, ultimately, an elected Mayor
Illustration of a green single-deck electric bus with a five-colour stripe along its side and a destination display reading “Spring 2027”. SPRING 2027
Our sketch, not the official livery. Weaver buses carry a distinctive green.

The new buses

In May 2026 the Combined Authority signed a deal worth up to £100m with Northern Ireland bus-builder Wrightbus for 193 single- and double-deck electric buses. They’re the start of a publicly owned fleet that will be leased to operators, rolling out in stages from spring 2027 to late 2028.

193

electric buses on order

150+

green Weaver shelters being installed

  • Electric-powered access ramps and space for two wheelchairs
  • A flexible space for a pushchair or bigger luggage
  • USB-A and USB-C charging at every seat, plus air conditioning
  • Seats covered in moquette woven in West Yorkshire

04 Timeline

How we got here, and what’s next

From the PTE to the Mayor’s buses, and the trams Leeds has been promised more than once.

  • Done and dusted
  • Planned, so subject to change

LeedsBradfordCalderdaleKirkleesWakefield

  1. 1 April 1974

    The PTE is born

    The West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive is formed with the new county, merging the council bus fleets of Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax.

  2. 26 October 1986

    Deregulation day

    Under the Transport Act 1985, private operators can set their own commercial routes, timetables and fares outside London.

  3. 1988 and 1995

    Yorkshire Rider sold

    The PTE’s former bus company goes to a management buyout in 1988, then in 1995 to the group that became First West Yorkshire.

  4. 2014

    The Combined Authority takes over

    The PTE is formally abolished, and its job passes to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The Metro name lives on.

  5. 2017

    The Bus Services Act

    Mayoral combined authorities get the power to franchise their buses.

  6. September 2022

    Mayor’s Fares

    Single bus fares are capped at £2. Since 30 March 2025 the cap has been £2.50, with a £6 DaySaver.

  7. October 2023 to January 2024

    The public has its say

    A consultation on franchising, in which a large majority of respondents were in favour.

  8. 14 March 2024

    Decision made

    The Mayor confirms West Yorkshire will franchise its buses.

  9. 12 May 2025

    Weaver is unveiled

    The Weaver Network brand is announced, replacing WYMetro.

  10. August 2025

    Tenders open

    The invitation to tender for the first franchise contracts is launched.

  11. May 2026

    Seats and buses ordered

    Camira Fabrics is chosen to make the seat moquette, and 193 electric buses are ordered from Wrightbus.

  12. Summer 2026

    A rail agreement

    The Mayor signs a memorandum of understanding with Network Rail, Northern, TransPennine Express and LNER to integrate rail into the Weaver Network.

  13. 1 September 2026

    First contracts signed

    First West Yorkshire (Huddersfield and parts of Leeds) and Transdev Blazefield (Dewsbury) sign up.

  14. 20 September 2026

    Heckmondwike leads the way

    The rebuilt Heckmondwike Bus Station opens as the first built with the Weaver Network name.

  15. You are here: October 2026
  16. Spring 2027

    Round one: the first Weaver buses

    Franchised services start, mainly in Huddersfield, Dewsbury and parts of Leeds. The Weaver website and app launch, and the WYMetro brand is retired.

  17. Early 2028

    Round two

    Mainly parts of Leeds and Wakefield.

  18. Autumn 2028

    Round three: the whole county

    Bradford, Calderdale and the rest of Wakefield. The goal is every bus under public control by the end of 2028.

  19. By 2028

    Spades in the ground for the tram

    That’s still the Mayor’s pledge for West Yorkshire Mass Transit.

  20. Late 2030s

    Trams running

    After an independent review, opening of the first tram lines is now expected in the late 2030s.

05 The big picture

What it means for Yorkshire

A new name on the bus shelter is the easy bit. Here’s what’s really at stake.

For passengers

One network to learn instead of nineteen operators. You get one brand, one map, one app, tickets designed to work across it all, and timetables planned to connect rather than compete.

The Combined Authority has also announced plans for disabled pass holders to travel free at any time of day once Weaver buses arrive, starting with a trial in Wakefield.

For towns and estates

Under deregulation, the routes that didn’t pay lived or died by subsidy. When the network is planned as a whole, busy routes can help hold up quieter ones. That’s how London works.

Whether that means more buses in your patch depends on budgets and choices. But those choices will now be made in public.

For jobs and skills

A bus is how a lot of people get to work, college, training and appointments, especially people who don’t drive. Better buses widen the map of jobs you can actually reach.

There’s work in the build-out too. The seat fabric comes from Kirklees, and Wrightbus says Camira is one of many regional companies supplying the new fleet.

For the air we breathe

193 electric buses is a solid start. There’s also a planned £60m zero-emission-ready depot in Wakefield, and solar panels and a green roof on the new Heckmondwike bus station.

The Combined Authority’s aim is a net zero region by 2038. The real prize is a bus good enough that people leave the car at home.

For accountability

When a commercial route got axed, there was nobody on the ballot paper to blame. Now the person ultimately answerable for West Yorkshire’s buses is elected by West Yorkshire.

That cuts both ways: the Mayor gets the credit, and the earache.

For the wider North

Greater Manchester’s Bee Network went first. Its franchised buses started on 24 September 2023 in Bolton, Wigan and parts of Bury and Salford, and covered the whole city region by 5 January 2025. Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire have also chosen franchising.

Weaver is West Yorkshire’s version: same idea, our own cloth.

You can vote out a mayor.
You never could vote out a bus company.

The honest bit

We’re fans, not cheerleaders. Here’s what could go wrong.

  1. It costs money, and the risk moves. Under franchising the fare money comes to the public side, and broadly so does the financial risk. If passenger numbers or budgets disappoint, that’s a public problem, not a company’s.
  2. Delivery is a big job. There are three rounds, dozens of contracts, new depots and a new fleet on a tight timetable. It won’t all go smoothly. In September 2026, five school-service contracts weren’t awarded because no bids were good enough, and they’re being re-tendered.
  3. The trams are later than hoped. After a review, opening has slipped to the late 2030s, though the Mayor still pledges spades in the ground by 2028. Leeds has been here before: Supertram was cancelled in 2005 and the trolleybus plan was rejected in 2016.
  4. It won’t fix traffic. A franchised bus stuck in a jam is still stuck in a jam. Bus lanes, bus gates and traffic-light priority matter as much as the badge on the side.
  5. Day one will look a lot like the day before. Mostly the same roads and the same drivers, with new paint. The good stuff, like better planning, simpler fares and more reliable services, has to be earned over years.
  6. Fares are a political choice now. Nobody can promise they’ll never rise. The difference is that the decision is made in public, by people you can vote for or against.

06 Your questions

Frequently asked questions

The things people actually ask at the bus stop. Where something isn’t confirmed yet, we say so.

Will my bus pass or MCard still work?

Older and disabled person’s bus passes are part of a national scheme set in law, so franchising doesn’t take them away. The Combined Authority has also announced plans for disabled pass holders to travel free at any time of day once Weaver buses arrive.

MCard is West Yorkshire’s multi-operator smartcard and app, and the largest multimodal ticketing scheme in the UK outside London. The Combined Authority describes it as laying the foundations for Weaver Network ticketing. Exactly how tickets will be named and priced from 2027 hasn’t been confirmed, so watch the official announcements.

Who will actually drive the buses?

Bus companies, as now. The difference is that they’ll do it under contract to the Combined Authority. The first big contracts went to First West Yorkshire and Transdev Blazefield, and smaller contracts are going to a mix of firms.

National regulations set out how bus staff transfer between employers when franchising arrives, so it’s likely plenty of familiar faces will still be at the wheel.

Will fares go up?

Nobody can promise fares will never rise. What changes is who decides: the Combined Authority sets fares for every franchised bus, in public. Today the Mayor’s Fares cap a single at £2.50 and a DaySaver at £6.

Separately, the government has announced a £2 cap on single bus fares across England outside London from 1 January to 31 December 2027. How that will work alongside West Yorkshire’s own fares hasn’t been fully spelled out yet, so check official sources nearer the time.

Does this change the trains?

Not who runs them. Northern, TransPennine Express and LNER, all now publicly owned, keep running the trains, and Network Rail looks after the track. In summer 2026 the Mayor signed a first-of-its-kind agreement with all four to work together ahead of Great British Railways. It covers:

  • better links between rail and other transport
  • accessibility improvements and upgrades at stations
  • progress on new stations including Elland and Thorpe Park
  • a shared “Weaver Network Rail vision”, due by the end of 2028

Expect to see the Weaver name at railway stations from 2027.

When will I see Weaver buses near me?
  • Spring 2027 (round one): mainly Huddersfield, Dewsbury and parts of Leeds
  • Early 2028 (round two): mainly parts of Leeds and Wakefield
  • Autumn 2028 (round three): Bradford, Calderdale and the rest of Wakefield

The signs will reach you sooner. More than 150 green Weaver shelters are going in across the county as old ones need replacing. Some services that cross the county boundary will run under permits rather than franchise contracts, so not every bus you see will be a Weaver bus.

Is the tram actually happening?

That’s the plan, and there’s money behind it. The 2025 Spending Review awarded £2.1bn for West Yorkshire transport between 2027 and 2032, and the mass transit programme is estimated at around £2.5bn. Phase one is two lines:

  • a Leeds line from St James’s University Hospital, through the city centre, to White Rose
  • a Bradford line linking Bradford and Leeds city centres

The Mayor still pledges spades in the ground by 2028, but after an independent review, opening is now expected in the late 2030s. Leeds is often called the largest city in Western Europe without a light rail or metro system, and it’s had its hopes raised before. A healthy dose of Yorkshire scepticism is allowed.

Is this the official Weaver Network site?

No. This is an unofficial fan site, written by someone who likes buses rather a lot. It has nowt to do with West Yorkshire Combined Authority or any operator. For anything you’re relying on, like times, fares and disruption, use the official sources:

07 The fan network

Keep pulling the thread

This site is one of three. Each one picks up where the others leave off.

weavernetwork.org.uk

Buses, trains & trams

The new buses, trains and trams, and how a joined-up network should work.

Visit the site

weavernetworkuk.com

Live tracker & timetables

Live bus and train tracker and timetables.

Visit the site

Sources

Everything on this page was checked against these on 4 October 2026. Plans change. If anything here disagrees with an official source, the official source wins.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority

Government and law

History and heritage

News and trade press