Halifax Joint Committee bus (KYV 760X), 28 July 2001

Halifax Joint Committee was an independent bus company operating in and around Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. Its buses were painted in the livery of the former County Borough of Halifax whose buses and services were taken over by the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive in April 1974.

Vehicles

The company started off running a heritage bus service from Halifax along the

Calder Valley Calder is a Scottish name and may refer to: People *Calder (surname) *Calder baronets, two baronetcies created for people with the surname Calder *Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the American sculptor known for his mobiles, son of Alexander Stirling ...

Hebden Bridge Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest ...

using an

AEC Regent III The AEC Regent III (also known as Regent 3 or Regent Mark III) was a type of double-decker bus chassis manufactured by AEC. It was mainly built for operation outside London and overseas. It could be fitted with AEC's 9.6-litre diesel engine ( ...

(BCP 671). The company expanded to running commercial bus services using 4

Park Royal Park Royal is an area in North West London, North West London, England, partly in the London Borough of Brent and partly the London Borough of Ealing. It is the site of the largest business park in London, but despite intensive existing use, ...

AEC Routemaster The AEC Routemaster is a front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Park Royal Vehicles. The first prototype was completed in September 1954 and the last one ...

s. Looking for an OPO vehicle, they bought an ex- London Transport

MCW Metrobus The MCW Metrobus is a two and three-axle double-decker bus manufactured by Metro Cammell Weymann (MCW) between 1977 and 1989, with over 4,000 built. The original MkI was superseded by the MkII which had a symmetrical windscreen with an arched ...

(BYX 273V). They continued purchasing ex-LT MCW Metrobuses along with two Leyland Titans and

Leyland National The Leyland National is an integrally-constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus C ...

s. The Titans and the Nationals didn't last as long as expected and were replaced by more ex-LT Metrobuses and

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles of Guildford, England in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, In 1996 the low-floor seco ...

s. 2007 saw the purchase of a

Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian was a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as ...

(F234 YTJ), and 2008 saw the purchase of number of ex-

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus ( ga, Bus Átha Cliath) is a State-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 138 million passengers in 2019. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann. ...

s. The proprietor also operated a growing heritage fleet of ex-municipal vehicles on private charters. Bus Sales - A number of buses have been sold on for further use, MCW Metrobus: # B294 WUL - converted open top for SS Suncruisers, Scarborough. # C387 BUV - W E Jones, Llanerchymedd. # JHE 161W - sold for preservation in South Yorkshire. # C424 BUV - Sold for preservation in West Yorkshire to be restored as a Halifax Joint Committee Metrobus

Services

Halifax Joint Committee mainly ran services in the Halifax area with some services running to Bradford (509 - originally to

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

Eastgate),

Brighouse Brighouse is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, east of Halifax. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 mo ...

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into t ...

, and

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Hal ...

. The company also ran school services in the

Calderdale Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, whose population in 2020 was 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the up ...

and

Kirklees Kirklees is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Kirklees Council with the status of a metropolitan borough. The largest town and administrative centre of Kirklees is Huddersfield, and the district also includes ...

area. From July 2009, the company started its first commercial service wholly outside of the Halifax area when they took over the operation of route 357 from

First West Yorkshire First West Yorkshire operates both local and regional bus services in West Yorkshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the FirstGroup, and is made up of three sub-division brands: First Bradford, First Halifax, Calder Valley & Huddersfield and Firs ...

with a second gained in January 2010, when they took over route 629 from the same operator. In October 2010, Halifax Joint Committee stopped running four of its Halifax services, the 28A, 31, 34 and 36, with the services passing to

Centrebus Centrebus is a bus company based in Leicester operating services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. Centrebus have a 51% shareholding in High Peak Buses and since December 2019 throu ...

and

K-Line K-Line Electric Trains is a brand name of O gauge and S gauge model railway locomotives, rolling stock, and buildings. Formerly the brand name under which Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based MDK Inc. sold its products, K-Line was then acquired by ...

. This meant that the company's only services in Halifax was the 392 schoolday service towards

Walsden Walsden (; ) is a large village in the civil parish of Todmorden in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England, though historically partially administered in Lancashire (the Walsden Water as tributary to the Calder servin ...

and the C68 service linking the town's bus station to the nearby

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company w ...

. In July 2013, Halifax Joint Committee withdrew from all their school & college contracts which led to the withdrawal of their final stage carriage route 392. The company sold all of their Olympians, scrapped two Metrobuses and sold one for preservation (C424 BUV). On 31 March 2014, the last MCW Metrobus (B162 WUL) left the fleet for scrap, with two Dennis Darts (L126 YOD & P509 RYM) remaining for the C68 and C70 shoppers routes. May 2014 saw the end of Halifax Joint Committee. Friday 2 May 2014 was the last day of the C68 Sainsbury's and Saturday 3 May 2014 was the last day of the C70 Tesco Free Bus.

References

External links

Flickr gallery
{{Bus companies in Yorkshire, state=collapsed Vintage bus operators in the United Kingdom Companies based in Halifax, West Yorkshire Transport in Calderdale Former bus operators in West Yorkshire