The new name for West Yorkshire’s Metro promises a new look and a new ethos ahead of the county’s franchising process
West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) has unveiled the new name for its local transport operations. Previously branded as Metro, it will be rebranded as Weaver Network. WYCA says that the modern brand will offer a single branding for passengers, making transport easier and more accessible, and follows extensive work to explore the region’s cultural identity, including the involvement of poet laureate and West Yorkshire resident Simon Armitage.
WYCA says that the name is inspired by the region’s industrial past and visually reflects the cultural fabric of modern-day West Yorkshire. The new brand was officially unveiled by Mayor Tracy Brabin and West Yorkshire’s five council leaders at Millennium Square in Leeds on Monday 12 May.
To be cost effective, WYCA says the brand will be gradually introduced, starting with existing planned replacements at bus stops and bus stations, and then be rolled out further when franchising gets underway from 2027, before being included on the planned West Yorkshire tram system, for which construction work is scheduled to start in 2028.
The Mayor said: “For too long, our region has suffered from a disjointed, confusing, and increasingly hard to navigate public transport system. The Weaver Network is a fresh, modern identity for transport in West Yorkshire, reflecting our greater powers through devolution, as well as our ongoing work to bring buses back under public control and create a fully-integrated mass transit network.
“This will help us on our journey to creating a transport system that is easier to use, and demonstrates our ambition to create a better-connected region that works for all.” West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee chair Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe added: “Our role within public transport in the region is constantly evolving – the Metro brand was created in 1974, and our organisation’s roles and responsibilities have changed immeasurably since then. With the Mayor’s decision to take back control of the bus network, we are now moving towards a fully integrated transport network under one brand, replacing about 19 different brands currently in use. The Weaver Network will reflect
a public transport network that the region can be proud of, while helping the public to understand who is responsible for helping them travel to where they need to be.”
Poet Laureate Simon Armitage said: “I was pleased and proud to be part of a conversation about the naming of the future transport network. I’m West Yorkshire born and bred, a public transport user, a geography graduate and a poet. In many ways it was the perfect invitation. 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.” The rebrand follows the decision by the Combined Authority in January to retire the Metro brand and related identities such as Leeds Park & Ride, and CityConnect, and adopt a new brand and identity to be used across an integrated transport network for West Yorkshire. Separately, an agreement between West and South Yorkshire Combined Authorities and bus operator Stagecoach will see increased frequency on services linking Barnsley with Wakefield and Pontefract from 26 April. Mayor Brabin said: “I am proud to be working alongside Stagecoach to bring more cross-border services between Wakefield and Barnsley. We recognise people’s lives aren’t neatly contained within one town or city – many people from Wakefield have links to South Yorkshire and vice versa. This also reflects our White Rose Agreement commitments to working across borders within Yorkshire.”
South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard, said: “Buses are essential for our communities. They’re not an optional extra. That’s why I’m working with Yorkshire Mayors, like Tracy, through our recently signed White Rose Agreement to improve cross-border bus services so we can connect our people to services, to jobs, training and opportunity, and to friends and family.”
