WHENEVER I hear about a passenger being fined for not buying a rail ticket it highlights a number of concerns I have about our transport network.

Of course there can be no excuse for fare-dodging – but I do sympathise with busy commuters, particularly those on the Guiseley to Leeds route, who want to buy tickets in a quick and efficient manner, only to find that there aren’t enough places at the station or between stations to get one. The situation is only made worse by long queues at Guiseley ticket office and out of order ticket machines.

With ticket barriers at Leeds, it makes no sense at all not to buy a ticket, so I think there are probably a quite a few people who end up without one because they haven’t had the chance to buy one at the station or on the train. If that happens a lot then it’s surely a transport planning failure as much as it is the responsibility of the passenger concerned.

What it suggests to me is that we need to push forward much more quickly with a pre-paid Oyster-card-style system for our region. And this needs to be an integrated system that works across buses and trains and gives people the flexibility to plan their journeys how they want. If people can pre-pay for their journeys using a straightforward fee model consistent across all stations then it has to be a good thing for passengers and transport bosses. There’s been talk of such a system for some time; it’s time we got on with it and introduced something in Leeds.

Councillor Paul Wadsworth

Guiseley & Rawdon Ward