Yorkshire Bus Operations

tyresmoke

5,318

09 Jan 2014, 6:47 pm #13

A quick guide to York

We begin our look at the Yorkshire area with the capital of the region, York itself.

The dominant operator is First who operate the majority of the city routes with a fleet of 100, mainly Volvo, vehicles.

First’s city network comprises several high frequency routes alongside the traditional half hourly and hourly services to lesser populated parts of the suburbs. As with any city, the university plays a part in the routes and that’s where the competition is at its highest, with Transdev York having the contracted services around the University and its own high frequency route 44 linking the Uni with the city centre, operated by dedicated branded “Unibus” vehicles. This competes with First’s service 4.

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First also run the high profile Park & Ride services, contracted to the council and operated in a completely separate silver based livery with a mix of Volvo B7RLE Eclipse and Mercedes Citaro articulated vehicles, these run on 5 high frequency, limited stop routes to the Park & Ride sites around the city. These are Service 2 to Clifton Moor, Service 3 to Askham Bar, Service 7 to McArthur Glen Designer Outlet, Service 8 to Grimston Bar and Service 9 to Monks Cross. Soon to be added to the Park & Ride network is a new site near Poppleton, which will be operated by a number of electric Optare Versa’s (as described above) which is due to start in the Spring.

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Other large operators found in York are Arriva, who run York city services 24/26/27 with a fleet of hired Optare Solo's (soon to be replaced with new Optare Solo SR's). Also appearing from Arriva is service 415 run every half hour from Selby with branded VDL Gemini's, plus less frequent service 42. East Yorkshire also link York with Market Weighton and Hull with their “Wicstun Express” service X4 every 2 hours, plus service 45/46 towards Pocklington, running onwards to Market Weighton, Driffield and Bridlington along with express service X46 to Pocklington, Beverley and Hull. A number of other less frequent services also run including the 747 to Pocklington via Full Sutton.

Transdev York mainly run contracted services, both on behalf of the council and the university. Their high profile service is the “Unibus” 44. They also run a handful of other University shuttles (including the UB1 which is to be operated by an electric Solo soon) and they also hold the City Sightseeing franchise in York, operated by a mix of Dennis Tridents and Leyland Olympian’s!

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Also operated from York is the “small” Coastliner service 844 using a variety of vehicles including Optare Versa and Volvo B7RLE/B10BLE, it links York and Leeds to give a higher frequency in between the existing Transdev Coastliner services. Coastliner serve York enroute to Malton (where their depot is right next to the bus station!), Pickering, Scarborough and Whitby, run by high specification Volvo B9TL Gemini’s, with these operating between Leeds and the coast all year round.

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A number of other operators also serve York from the surrounding areas and it is also linked up by express coach operators National Express (who provide services 426/436, 530, 534 and 563) and Megabus (via the Megabusplus service to London).

Services from the north are primarily operated by Reliance Motor Services and Stephensons of Easingwold, who both run their own services into York.

Reliance operate a mixture of Volvo B6, B7 and B10 vehicles into York on services 30, 30X and 40 from Thirsk and Easingwold to York. They also operate a service 19 from York to Skelton. Stephensons operate a mix of ADL Enviro 200/300 and Scania Omnicity on their “Orange Zone” services 29, 31 and 31X from Easingwold and Helmsley. Also operated are contracted (via North Yorkshire County Council) “Blue Zone” services 180 and 181 which link York with Sheriff Hutton and Castle Howard, with onward connections to Malton.

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Other less frequent (and often tendered) services link York with surrounding towns and villages, with a number of operators involved including local coach operator Eddie Brown who run a small number of contracted services with a fleet of Scania Solar’s and Optare Solo’s. These include the 142/143 to Ripon via Boroughbridge and the 412/413 to Wetherby which is shared with Harrogate Coach Travel (also known as Connexionsbuses). HCT also operate York council funded service 21 to Colton. They operate across a wide area of both North and West Yorkshire and can be found pretty much anywhere! They operate a mixed fleet of Scania Omnicity and Wright Axcess and a number of Optare Solo’s. Utopia Coaches operate NYCC funded service 37 to Tadcaster twice a day and service 422 to South Milford every 2 hours, primarily operated with Optare Solo’s.

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