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Post by SILENCED on Oct 6, 2022 21:42:23 GMT
Seeing as there are threads for other areas of the country thought I would create one for the area of the UK bus operation that is my secondary interest, that being West Yorkshire, having lived there from 2009-15.
My main interest is in First West Yorkshire, which now controls First York, which is technically North Yorkshire, but input from all operators is welcome. Main operators in the area are First, Arriva and Transdev. There are a number of small independents as well.
Following batches of Streetdecks and Streetlites arriving at First Bradford and general service reductions, the summer saw a large number of 58-59 reg Volvo B9TL\Wright Gemini's move from Bradford and the 2 Leeds garages, to Halifax and Huddersfield which greatly modernised the fleets of these two towns, replacing mainly Euro3 B7TLs and B7RLEs.
New buses continue to arrive. 9 new Streetdecks are to join the large fleet already at Leeds and further examples are arriving for York. Huddersfield are receiving a batch of new Streetlites, and Halifax are receiving the 5 14-reg B9TL from the now defunct Yellow Buses ... these will reintroduce the B9TL Gemini 2 combination to the First West Yorkshire fleet.
First West Yorkshire has 5 main garages, Bramley and Hunslet Park in Leeds, Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield. Halifax also has an outstation at Todmorden, which is on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border.
Will post more when I have time.
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Post by YY13VKP on Oct 11, 2022 17:43:44 GMT
Looking forward to seeing Huddersfield finally receiving some new buses in those 10 new Streetlites. Shame there's no new double decks on their way but according to a reliable source, 10 former Metroline VW's will be joining the First West Yorkshire fleet. Huddersfield are due to receive VW1763/65/69/78/79 and Halifax are due VW1752/54/57/58/60. They will regain their original fleetnumbers from their First days.
Bit of a shame they're now getting some ex London buses now I'm not living in Huddersfield anymore, but since last year it seems as though First have been given a kick up the backside by TeamPennine as they are starting to improve their services and renew their ageing fleet. I suspect most of the B7TL's will start departing across the group, though Huddersfield still have a rather large fleet of B7TL's to dispose of.
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Post by SILENCED on Oct 14, 2022 18:04:04 GMT
So let's give you some idea of the allocations and network in Huddersfield.
Let's start of with the garage, also known as Old Ferry Lane, believe it is on a single site, but never seen it.
Huddersfield network of routes generally numbered 3xx, although some going out west are numbered 18x. There is also a 200 which seems to run back to the garage. Route X63(363) is operated to Bradford and 537 and part 503 are operated to Halifax (think you can guess the Halifax numbering scheme?). Remainder of the routes operate within Kirklees, the local authority. The main Leeds service is operated by Arriva.
Think all routes serve the bus station, sure someone on here will correct me if this is not true, which is a drive in reverse off type of bus station, with bays for terminating buses against the far wall. To be honest the quality of bus stations in Yorkshire puts London's to shame, with protected undercover waiting areas offered to passengers.
X63 buses were route branded, but they are starting to lose that for the now standard Huddersfield Connect livery, which is rather uninspiring. The new Streetlites are not in Huddersfield Connect livery, so this maybe going by the wayside like the Halifax Connect variation. Other buses not in Huddersfield Connect livery are in standard Olympia
The fleet has been heavily refreshed in the past 12-15 months. The garage gained an allocation of B9TL a good few years back when the 07-reg B9TLs, 37500 and 37525 arrived on loan for a First TransPennine rail replacement service that lasted 2-3 months, mainly from First Manchester, but they never ended up going back. The 370xx 08-reg arrived when the Bradford portion of the X63 transferred in bring its route branded buses with it. 3 09-reg arrived in the summer of 2021, and the remainder have arrived since August. The 14-reg E400s arrived earlier this year for the 398 service linked to the main university campus, and seem to be rigidly allocated to this service. Other routes seem to be pot luck as to what will turn up, except for the X63 which having lost its B7TLs now seems to now be restricted to 08 and 07-reg B9TLs, and its route branded B7TLs joining the general Huddersfield decker randomness.
RIP the Huddersfield and Halifax ALX400s.
The BMCs are yellow school buses, but their numbers have diminished over the past few years
Huddersfield Deckers - Total 68
Volvo B7TL/Gemini - Total 32
04-reg 32461-63/64*/65/68/70/71 -Total 8 54-reg 32503/05-06/07*/08-11/13/14-17*/18/19* - Total 15 06-reg 32697*/37028-30*/32*/38-41* - Total 9
Volvo B9TL/Gemini - Total 31
07-reg 37258/91-92*/93/94*/95*/96/98/99*/300* - Total 10 08-reg 37083-87*/37500* - Total 6 58-reg 37525* - Total 1 09-reg 37681/86/88/89/706*/11/17/19/20/21/23/25*/27/31 - Total 14
E400 - Total 5
14-reg 33886-90 - Total 5
Huddersfield SD - Total 40
Streetlites - Total 8
64-reg 47493-94/95*/96/97/98*/99*/500
B7RLE/Wright - Total 18
05‐reg 66774-76/84-85/91 -Total 6 55-reg 69018 - Total 1 09-reg 69324* - Total 1 13-reg 69556-64*/65 - Total 10
BMC 220/5 - Total 14
07-reg 68694-97/99/711 57-reg 68684-87 08-reg 68690-93
These vehicles have joined the FWY fleet and are reportedly due for Huddersfield
Volvo B9TL/ Gemini2 - Total 5
59-reg 37784/86/90/99/800
Wright Streetlites - Total 10
72-reg 63434-43
* means in Huddersfield Connect livery
Next up Halifax ... which was my home town when I lived up there
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Oct 15, 2022 3:55:40 GMT
Looking forward to seeing Huddersfield finally receiving some new buses in those 10 new Streetlites. Shame there's no new double decks on their way but according to a reliable source, 10 former Metroline VW's will be joining the First West Yorkshire fleet. Huddersfield are due to receive VW1763/65/69/78/79 and Halifax are due VW1752/54/57/58/60. They will regain their original fleetnumbers from their First days. Bit of a shame they're now getting some ex London buses now I'm not living in Huddersfield anymore, but since last year it seems as though First have been given a kick up the backside by TeamPennine as they are starting to improve their services and renew their ageing fleet. I suspect most of the B7TL's will start departing across the group, though Huddersfield still have a rather large fleet of B7TL's to dispose of. So that's First in West Yorkshire in addition to South Yorkshire gaining ex-First London VNs. Although I went to Huddersfield as recently as April, I may well go back to ride an ex route 83 VN when I next visit Halifax. That will admittedly not be until the bus station rebuild is complete. West Yorkshire has one of my favourite Arriva subsidiaries. Leeds is probably my favourite city in Britain for transport where I have never lived! I have been there every yea since 2008.
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Post by snowman on Oct 15, 2022 7:26:14 GMT
Looking forward to seeing Huddersfield finally receiving some new buses in those 10 new Streetlites. Shame there's no new double decks on their way but according to a reliable source, 10 former Metroline VW's will be joining the First West Yorkshire fleet. Huddersfield are due to receive VW1763/65/69/78/79 and Halifax are due VW1752/54/57/58/60. They will regain their original fleetnumbers from their First days. Bit of a shame they're now getting some ex London buses now I'm not living in Huddersfield anymore, but since last year it seems as though First have been given a kick up the backside by TeamPennine as they are starting to improve their services and renew their ageing fleet. I suspect most of the B7TL's will start departing across the group, though Huddersfield still have a rather large fleet of B7TL's to dispose of. So that's First in West Yorkshire in addition to South Yorkshire gaining ex-First London VNs. Although I went to Huddersfield as recently as April, I may well go back to ride an ex route 83 VN when I next visit Halifax. That will admittedly not be until the bus station rebuild is complete. West Yorkshire has one of my favourite Arriva subsidiaries. Leeds is probably my favourite city in Britain for transport where I have never lived! I have been there every yea since 2008. West Yorkshire got one of the Government’s Zebra awards 111 electric buses for Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield Phase 2 adds Calderdale and Kirklees Phase 3 adds more buses to West Yorkshire Will be 237 electric buses (19% of West Yorkshire fleet) Not sure of vehicle types but 32 Wrightbus GB Kite single decks for Leeds was part of the recent big First announcement of 193 electric buses
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Post by SILENCED on Oct 15, 2022 8:30:13 GMT
So that's First in West Yorkshire in addition to South Yorkshire gaining ex-First London VNs. Although I went to Huddersfield as recently as April, I may well go back to ride an ex route 83 VN when I next visit Halifax. That will admittedly not be until the bus station rebuild is complete. West Yorkshire has one of my favourite Arriva subsidiaries. Leeds is probably my favourite city in Britain for transport where I have never lived! I have been there every yea since 2008. West Yorkshire got one of the Government’s Zebra awards 111 electric buses for Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield Phase 2 adds Calderdale and Kirklees Phase 3 adds more buses to West Yorkshire Will be 237 electric buses (19% of West Yorkshire fleet) Not sure of vehicle types but 32 Wrightbus GB Kite single decks for Leeds was part of the recent big First announcement of 193 electric buses There has been suggestions that the phase 2 is not happening. But phase 2 was for only 8 vehicles in total, so pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. As far as I can tell phase 3 is for 60-126 buses, although the higher headline figure is usually used in most releases, but this is not currently funded as far as I am aware. Think the only phase confirmed is 1 .... 2 was, but seems to be in doubt.
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Post by YY13VKP on Oct 15, 2022 8:56:12 GMT
So let's give you some idea of the allocations and network in Huddersfield. Let's start of with the garage, also known as Old Ferry Lane, believe it is on a single site, but never seen it. Huddersfield network of routes generally numbered 3xx, although some going out west are numbered 18x. There is also a 200 which seems to run back to the garage. Route X63(363) is operated to Bradford and 537 and part 503 are operated to Halifax (think you can guess the Halifax numbering scheme?). Remainder of the routes operate within Kirklees, the local authority. The main Leeds service is operated by Arriva. Think all routes serve the bus station, sure someone on here will correct me if this is not true, which is a drive in reverse off type of bus station, with bays for terminating buses against the far wall. To be honest the quality of bus stations in Yorkshire puts London's to shame, with protected undercover waiting areas offered to passengers. X63 buses were route branded, but they are starting to lose that for the now standard Huddersfield Connect livery, which is rather uninspiring. The new Streetlites are not in Huddersfield Connect livery, so this maybe going by the wayside like the Halifax Connect variation. Other buses not in Huddersfield Connect livery are in standard Olympia The fleet has been heavily refreshed in the past 12-15 months. The garage gained an allocation of B9TL a good few years back when the 07-reg B9TLs, 37500 and 37525 arrived on loan for a First TransPennine rail replacement service that lasted 2-3 months, mainly from First Manchester, but they never ended up going back. The 370xx 08-reg arrived when the Bradford portion of the X63 transferred in bring its route branded buses with it. 3 09-reg arrived in the summer of 2021, and the remainder have arrived since August. The 14-reg E400s arrived earlier this year for the 398 service linked to the main university campus, and seem to be rigidly allocated to this service. Other routes seem to be pot luck as to what will turn up, except for the X63 which having lost its B7TLs now seems to now be restricted to 08 and 07-reg B9TLs, and its route branded B7TLs joining the general Huddersfield decker randomness. RIP the Huddersfield and Halifax ALX400s. The BMCs are yellow school buses, but their numbers have diminished over the past few years Huddersfield Deckers - Total 68 Volvo B7TL/Gemini - Total 32 04-reg 32461-63/64*/65/68/70/71 -Total 8 54-reg 32503/05-06/07*/08-11/13/14-17*/18/19* - Total 15 06-reg 32697*/37028-30*/32*/38-41* - Total 9 Volvo B9TL/Gemini - Total 31 07-reg 37258/91-92*/93/94*/95*/96/98/99*/300* - Total 10 08-reg 37083-87*/37500* - Total 6 58-reg 37525* - Total 1 09-reg 37681/86/88/89/706*/11/17/19/20/21/23/25*/27/31 - Total 14 E400 - Total 5 14-reg 33886-90 - Total 5 Huddersfield SD - Total 40 Streetlites - Total 8 64-reg 47493-94/95*/96/97/98*/99*/500 B7RLE/Wright - Total 18 05‐reg 66774-76/84-85/91 -Total 6 55-reg 69018 - Total 1 09-reg 69324* - Total 1 13-reg 69556-64*/65 - Total 10 BMC 220/5 - Total 14 07-reg 68694-97/99/711 57-reg 68684-87 08-reg 68690-93 These vehicles have joined the FWY fleet and are reportedly due for Huddersfield Volvo B9TL/ Gemini2 - Total 5 59-reg 37784/86/90/99/800 Wright Streetlites - Total 10 72-reg 63434-43 * means in Huddersfield Connect livery Next up Halifax ... which was my home town when I lived up there One slight correction, Huddersfield depot is on Old Fieldhouse Lane . Otherwise, this is a great overview of First Huddersfield's operations!
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Post by wirewiper on Oct 15, 2022 11:16:48 GMT
A lot of the route numbering in West Yorkshire harks back to the days of the PTE (West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive), when routes throughout the County were renumbered to avoid duplication - previously the four Corporations (Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds) all had their own sequences starting from 1, and the National Bus Company operators also had numbers which duplicated the Corporations.
PTE routes in Leeds were mostly unchanged. Huddersfield routes were renumbered into the 300s, Halifax into the 500s and Bradford into the 600s. NBC routes were renumbered into the 100s, 200s and 400s.
Post privatisation, First renumbered its Manchester-Huddersfield route into a Greater Manchester sequence (184). Other routes along the Manchester road were also renumbered into the 18x sequence.
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Post by SILENCED on Oct 15, 2022 11:41:17 GMT
A lot of the route numbering in West Yorkshire harks back to the days of the PTE (West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive), when routes throughout the County were renumbered to avoid duplication - previously the four Corporations (Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds) all had their own sequences starting from 1, and the National Bus Company operators also had numbers which duplicated the Corporations. PTE routes in Leeds were mostly unchanged. Huddersfield routes were renumbered into the 300s, Halifax into the 500s and Bradford into the 600s. NBC routes were renumbered into the 100s, 200s and 400s. Post privatisation, First renumbered its Manchester-Huddersfield route into a Greater Manchester sequence (184). Other routes along the Manchester road were also renumbered into the 18x sequence. Thank you for supplying that info, always good to learn more detail about these things ... an expert on West Yorkshire I am not, but have an interest. Knew about the corporations, but not the history of the route numbers ... explains why they fit so neatly. Dont believe the 184 goes all the way to Manchester anymore, think it was chopped back to Oldham whilst I was up there.
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Post by wirewiper on Oct 15, 2022 12:20:18 GMT
A lot of the route numbering in West Yorkshire harks back to the days of the PTE (West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive), when routes throughout the County were renumbered to avoid duplication - previously the four Corporations (Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds) all had their own sequences starting from 1, and the National Bus Company operators also had numbers which duplicated the Corporations. PTE routes in Leeds were mostly unchanged. Huddersfield routes were renumbered into the 300s, Halifax into the 500s and Bradford into the 600s. NBC routes were renumbered into the 100s, 200s and 400s. Post privatisation, First renumbered its Manchester-Huddersfield route into a Greater Manchester sequence (184). Other routes along the Manchester road were also renumbered into the 18x sequence. Thank you for supplying that info, always good to learn more detail about these things ... an expert on West Yorkshire I am not, but have an interest. Knew about the corporations, but not the history of the route numbers ... explains why they fit so neatly. Dont believe the 184 goes all the way to Manchester anymore, think it was chopped back to Oldham whilst I was up there. No worries, I used to visit family in Huddersfield in the 1970s and 1980s (and I was born there although raised in London) and I remember the formation of the PTE and the subsequent renumberings. Interesting that the route has reverted to Huddersfield-Oldham only, as that is what the route was historically. It was originally operated by the independent operator Hanson's, until they sold their bus operations to Huddersfield Corporation in 1969 upon which it became their route 65. Operation through to Manchester I believe only occurred after deregulation, I seem to remember at one time the 363 operated as a marathon Bradford-Huddersfield-Manchester route.
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Post by SILENCED on Oct 16, 2022 16:35:12 GMT
Thank you for supplying that info, always good to learn more detail about these things ... an expert on West Yorkshire I am not, but have an interest. Knew about the corporations, but not the history of the route numbers ... explains why they fit so neatly. Dont believe the 184 goes all the way to Manchester anymore, think it was chopped back to Oldham whilst I was up there. No worries, I used to visit family in Huddersfield in the 1970s and 1980s (and I was born there although raised in London) and I remember the formation of the PTE and the subsequent renumberings. Interesting that the route has reverted to Huddersfield-Oldham only, as that is what the route was historically. It was originally operated by the independent operator Hanson's, until they sold their bus operations to Huddersfield Corporation in 1969 upon which it became their route 65. Operation through to Manchester I believe only occurred after deregulation, I seem to remember at one time the 363 operated as a marathon Bradford-Huddersfield-Manchester route. So were the 18x routes historically all Hanson's routes? 180-186 are split between First Huddersfield and First Greater Manchester (Oldham) these days, with the latter currently operating the 184
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Post by wirewiper on Oct 20, 2022 7:51:10 GMT
No worries, I used to visit family in Huddersfield in the 1970s and 1980s (and I was born there although raised in London) and I remember the formation of the PTE and the subsequent renumberings. Interesting that the route has reverted to Huddersfield-Oldham only, as that is what the route was historically. It was originally operated by the independent operator Hanson's, until they sold their bus operations to Huddersfield Corporation in 1969 upon which it became their route 65. Operation through to Manchester I believe only occurred after deregulation, I seem to remember at one time the 363 operated as a marathon Bradford-Huddersfield-Manchester route. So were the 18x routes historically all Hanson's routes? 180-186 are split between First Huddersfield and First Greater Manchester (Oldham) these days, with the latter currently operating the 184 What is now the 184 would originally have been a Hanson's route, but the other Marsden routes would have been the Huddersfield Corporation 50-52 (later PTE 350-352). Originally Marsden was served by the trolleybus route 40 which operated from Fall Lane to Bradley via Huddersfield Town Centre, at ten miles long this was one of the longest trolleybus routes in Britain. The trolleybus route was withdrawn on 30th January 1963. The extensions to Hard End and Dirker were added in the motorbus era to serve post-war housing estates. I think Hanson's used to operate the routes to Hill Top and Wilberlee but I would need to check that.
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Post by SILENCED on Oct 20, 2022 11:09:07 GMT
OK, having reviewed First Huddersfield, lets look at the First Halifax fleet/network.
The Halifax fleet is spread across 3 sites, 2 in Halifax and one in Todmorden. In Halifax you have Skircoat and Elmwood, which are across the road from each other. Skircoat is where the main service fleet is kept, and Elmwood where the schools fleet is kept, and is the main maintenance facility for Halifax. This means that the school fleet can be on the whole seprated from the main fleet, although not unusual to see main fleet buses on the service rota used on school route. Todmorden, which I have recently understood to also be known as Millwood, is an outstation, with maintenance facilities restricted to refueling and other lubricants. Buses tend to spend a maximum of 2 days there as schedules allow for the regular rotation of the fleet.
The Halifax network consists of the 5xx route numbering, and all First routes numbered 5xx are run by Halifax, exception being those mentioned previously as operated by Huddersfield. School routes seem to be a mixture of letters and numbers, but this seems to be the norm across West Yorkshire.
The area of operation is far more expansive than Huddersfield, with services operated into Huddersfield, 549 and part 503, Bradford 576, Leeds 508, then 590-2 to Todmorden, which then delve deeper into Lancashire reaching Burnley or Rochdale, as well as lots of local Calderdale (the local authority) routes.
All vehicles are in the First urban livery or the seemingly now dropped HX Connect livery ... well this was until a couple of day's ago when 37129 arrived in Leeds City (Green) and 37674 arrived in a Yorkshire Rider heritage liveries.
When I first arrived in Halifax, it was very much the runt of the FWY fleet, having the majority of the Olympians and Wright Renown Volvo B10BLEs, and was rather envious on the odd occasion I saw a Huddersfield or Bradford B9TL in the town centre. Things changed after I left, when Halifax was chosen for the first phase of conversion away from yellow school buses. One of the big pledges about the conversion was buses would have no worse emissions than the current Euro4 school buses. This saw the arrival of B9TLs 37123-32, 37505/07/08 and 37700-03. Needless to say on subsequent conversions of school buses, the pledge fell away, and the B9TLs at Halifax moved to more mainstream work, with the exception of 37508 which has to this day remained part of the schools fleet. The preparation for the now cancelled Leeds ULEZ, saw the 14-reg E400s, which had been upgraded to Euro6, move from Leeds to Halifax, primarily for the 508 service to Leeds, but also for the 503, which was 100% operated by Halifax then. With the cancellation of the ULEZ, this process took around 12 months to complete, with 5 since having moved on to Huddersfield. Next we get to the summer of 2021, when the older batch of B9TLs 37123-32 (07/57-reg) was swapped with 37687/690-98 at Hunslet (Leeds), then since this summer, as per Huddersfield, the arrival of a number of B9TLs from Leeds and Bradford, and seemingly awaiting the introduction of Gemini 2 B9TLs recently acquired by First. The fleet also contains 1 of the 5 batch of 59-reg B9TLs with the original Gemini bodywork that were new to First West Yorkshire. I believe these are the only 5 59-reg vehicles built with this style of bodywork. Of the other 5, 2 are currently at Bradford and 2 transferred to the First South Yorkshire fleet and are currently based at Doncaster.
These days Halifax seems to have a slightly more modern fleet than Huddersfield
Halifax Deckers - Total - 72
Volvo B7TL/Gemini - Total 20
54-reg 32520-23/34*/36 - Total 6 05-reg 32541 - Total 1 06-reg 32692-94/95*/96*/37046/47/48*/49*/50-52 - Total 12 56-reg 32684 - Total 1
Volvo B9TL/Gemini - Total 39
57-reg 37063/64/129 - Total 3 08-reg 37505*/07*/08 - Total 3 58-reg 37360-63/64*/65/66*/674 - Total 8 09-reg 37687/90*/91-96/97*/98/700*/01/02/03*/09/10/12/13*/14/15/16/26/34/35 - Total 24 59-reg 37755 - Total 1
E400 - Total 13
14-reg 33873-85 - Total 13
Halifax SD's - Total 44
Streetlites - Total 9
64-reg 47491*/2 15-reg 63289-95
B7RLE/Wright - Total 25
54-reg 66745/48* ‐ Total 2 05-reg 66777* - Total 1 06-reg 69206/09 - Total 2 09-reg 69306-08/477/80-85 - Total 10 13-reg 69578/79*/80*/81*/82/83*/84/85*/86/87 - Total 10
BMC 220/5 - Total 10
06-reg 68702 07-reg 68676/77/80/82/83 57-reg 68705-08
These vehicles have joined the FWY fleet and are reportedly due for Halifax
Volvo B9TL/Gemini 2 - Total 10
59-reg 37773/75/78/79/81 14-reg 36311-5 *in HX Connext Livery
Update on Huddersfield post, B7RLE 69324 did not move back to Huddersfield, still in Leeds, tracking error, and 57-reg B9TLs 37127/30 seem to have arrived from Leeds.
Next up debating whether to look at First Bradford, or Team Pennine, who are the secondary operators in Huddersfield and Halifax and minor operator in Leeds. The latter being what was the Yorkshire Tiger operation when I lived up there.
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Post by wirewiper on Oct 20, 2022 12:10:28 GMT
Todmorden (or "Tod" as it is often referred to locally) is an odd case. It used to have its own Joint Omnibus Committee that was 50% owned by The LMS Railway (and latterly British Railways) and it was only amalgamated with the Halifax fleet in 1971, three years before the creation of West Yorkshire PTE. The JOC was the original operator of the routes that run from Halifax via Todmorden to Burnley and Rochdale.
At one time, the county boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire ran right through the middle of Tordmorden. Although this was changed in 1888 when the boundary was redrawn to put the town fully into the West Riding of Yorkshire, the Post Office used "Todmorden, Lancashire" for postal addresses and even today Royal Mail uses OL (Oldham) postcodes.
I'm finding this thread fascinating, I am going to dig out some of my books covering bus operations in the area and refresh my memory.
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Post by wirewiper on Dec 27, 2022 14:56:44 GMT
So were the 18x routes historically all Hanson's routes? 180-186 are split between First Huddersfield and First Greater Manchester (Oldham) these days, with the latter currently operating the 184 What is now the 184 would originally have been a Hanson's route, but the other Marsden routes would have been the Huddersfield Corporation 50-52 (later PTE 350-352). Originally Marsden was served by the trolleybus route 40 which operated from Fall Lane to Bradley via Huddersfield Town Centre, at ten miles long this was one of the longest trolleybus routes in Britain. The trolleybus route was withdrawn on 30th January 1963. The extensions to Hard End and Dirker were added in the motorbus era to serve post-war housing estates. I think Hanson's used to operate the routes to Hill Top and Wilberlee but I would need to check that. I did some more digging, Hanson's used to operate services between Huddersfield and the Colne Valley jointly with Huddersfield JOC (Joint Omnibus Committee) although it had sole tenure of the Oldham route. Minimum fares were charged along Manchester Road to protect Huddersfield Corporation's trolleybuses. The Huddersfield Joint Omnibus Committee had been set up in 1930 and was owned in equal shares by Huddersfield Corporation and the LMS Railway. It was a separate organisation to Huddersfield Corporation which only operated trams and then trolleybuses until 1961, when it replaced trolleybuses with its own motorbuses on the West Vale route. All subsequent trolleybus replacement routes were also operated directly by the Corporation. The last trolleybuses operated on the Lindley/Outlane and Waterloo routes 71 and 73 on 13th July 1968. The railway share of the JOC passed to the newly-formed and state-owned British Railways in 1948. The replacement of trolleybuses with motor buses allowed some Corporation and JOC routes to be combined and jointly operated from April 1967, reducing duplication and alleviating staff shortages. In 1968 the state-owned share of the JOC transferred to a new holding company, Amalgamated Passenger Transport Ltd. which became part of the National Bus Company upon its creation on 1st January 1969. Huddersfield Corporation bought out the NBC share on 1st October 1969, the same date on which it acquired the bus operations of Hanson's. As part of the deal, Huddersfield Corporation ceded the JOC's Dewsbury routes 26/27 and its share of the X68 Halifax-Sheffield route to NBC who assigned these to Yorkshire Traction, which had taken over the County Motors* garage on the outskirts of Huddersfield. NBC was also offered the Oldham route, but declined it. * County Motors set up as an independent operator in 1919, and operated routes from Huddersfield to Barnsley, Wakefield and Dewsbury - which happened to be the Headquarters of Yorkshire Traction, West Riding and Yorkshire Woollen respectively. The three companies banded together and bought out County Motors jointly in 1927, but it continued to operate independently - this neatly sidestepped any "territorial issues" between the three companies, as each one benefited from the revenue raised by County Motors services operating in its area. By 1969 all three had come into full state ownership and the National Bus Company assigned County Motors' garage, routes and vehicles to Yorkshire Traction.
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