West Yorkshire Metro

West Yorkshire Metro is the public transport brand of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), responsible for the region’s transport network, including buses, trains, stations and cycling facilities.

What I Delivered

I worked with WY Metro and WYCA for five years while at Headland, a full‑service digital agency in Leeds.

The authority needed to consolidate a suite of separate websites into a single, responsive platform that was easy to use on the move and fully integrated with their back‑end systems.

Technical Project Management

I acted as the technical project manager on the supplier side, working directly with both the WY Metro marketing team and the IT team.

1. My responsibilities included:
2. Leading a team of four in‑house software developers
3. Managing delivery across multiple systems and stakeholders
4. Running bi‑weekly client meetings
5. Producing technical documentation and progress reports
6. Coordinating with third‑party service providers

A Unified, Responsive Platform

The brief required us to bring multiple legacy sites together into a single, modern, responsive solution. 

This included:

• Designing and building a new Tickets & Passes ecommerce platform
• Integrating with WY Metro’s eCRM back‑office
• Creating a consistent user experience across desktop, mobile and tablet
• Ensuring real‑time data could be surfaced clearly and reliably

The new platform launched with two initial products, the Under‑16 and 16–18 student cards, followed by the 19–25 travel card, Senior passes and the M‑Card.

Complex Content Migration

The authority had hundreds of pages of historical, text‑based content stored across multiple systems. My team indexed, structured and migrated this content into the new platform, ensuring it was accurate, searchable and easy to maintain.

Timetable Data Transformation

One of the most technically challenging and rewarding parts of the project was modernising WY Metro’s timetable data. The legacy system could only output files for print, so I delivered a solution that:

• Parsed the legacy data
• Converted it into a real‑time timetable API
• Generated automated PDFs
• Delivered live timetable information across web and mobile

This significantly improved the accuracy, accessibility and maintainability of timetable information for passengers.

Impact

The project delivered a modern, unified digital platform for one of the UK’s largest regional transport authorities. 

Key outcomes included:

• A fully responsive, user‑friendly website
• Seamless integration with back‑office systems
• A scalable ecommerce platform for travel cards
• Real‑time bus and timetable information
• A more efficient content management process
• A development workflow built around Scrum for predictable delivery

The new platform made it easier for passengers to plan journeys, buy travel cards and access real‑time information all from a single, consistent interface.