First West Yorkshire operates both local and regional bus services in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England. It is a subsidiary of the

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive was formed, with the municipal fleets of

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, Calderdale, Halifax,

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees 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 confl ...

and

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

combined. Services were branded under the MetroBus brand, with a cream and verona green livery adopted. To comply with the

Transport Act 1985 The Transport Act 1985 (c. 67) was an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It introduced privatised and deregulated bus services throughout Great Britain and came into effect in October 1986. The act was created as a response to growing ...

, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive formed an arms length company named Yorkshire Rider in September 1986. West Yorkshire PTE's 'Metrobus' services were transferred to Yorkshire Rider upon the

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

of West Yorkshire bus services on 26 October 1986. On 21 October 1988, Yorkshire Rider was privatised for £20 million (), with 51% of shares in the company being sold by West Yorkshire PTE to a team of eight managers in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

and the remaining 49% sold to Yorkshire Rider's 3,500 employees in an Employee Share Ownership Plan, the largest ESOP arrangement in the United Kingdom at the time. In August 1989, Yorkshire Rider purchased the West Yorkshire Road Car Company, a former National Bus Company subsidiary who operated services in Bradford, Leeds and

Otley Otley is a market town and civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the population was 13,668 at the 2011 c ...

, from AJS Holdings. The 'West Yorkshire' trading name was retained by Yorkshire Rider for nearly a year following the takeover, after which it was removed in a restructuring of former WYRCC operations. On 15 April 1994, Yorkshire Rider was purchased by the Badgerline Group for £38 million (). Badgerline and its subsidiaries were later merged with the GRT Group in April 1995 to form the

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Morley-based Black Prince Buses. The family-run independent's last buses left service on 31 July, with First taking on most of Black Prince's services from 1 August. On 18 May 2008, the company's Kirkstall Road depot, first opened in 1897, was closed after 111 years of service. Staff and operations were subsequently moved to a new depot at

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the Leeds city centre, city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside (ward), Hunslet and Riverside ward of Lee ...

. Named Hunslet Park, the new depot was opened with a capacity of 200 buses with room for additional expansion. In 2009, the management of the three FirstGroup sub-divisions in West Yorkshire, as well as

First York First York operates local bus services, with a network centring around the cathedral city of York, North Yorkshire, England. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup, which operates bus, rail and tram services across the United Kingdom and Ireland. His ...

were centralised, creating First West Yorkshire. First's Todmorden outstation was partially demolished in 2015, converting the site into an open-air yard housing 24 vehicles. The operations of First West Yorkshire and

are to be remerged into a First North and West Yorkshire

business unit A strategic business unit (SBU) in business strategic management, is a profit center which focuses on product offering and market segment. SBUs typically have a discrete marketing plan, analysis of competition, and marketing campaign, even thoug ...

on 1 October 2022, with current Managing Director Paul Matthews temporarily overseeing operations of the new business unit until a new Managing Director can be recruited. This is part of major changes to the FirstGroup's senior management, which will see the merger of First's ten regional bus operations across the United Kingdom into six business units.

Operations

As of June 2022, excluding First York, the company operates from five depots in the region:

, Bramley, Halifax,

and

. The company also maintains an open-air outstation in

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and 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, Halifax. In 2011, it had a popul ...

Leeds

First Leeds operate buses in the city of Leeds and surrounding areas from both Bramley and Hunslet depots, the latter replacing the former Kirkstall Road site in 2008 and Cherry Row depot in 2009. First Leeds's services were rebranded to LeedsCity in early 2018, with First's standard fleet livery replaced with a predominantly green livery, of which was first applied to over 120 new Wright StreetDecks delivered between 2018 and 2022. Between 2019 and 2024, it was also rolled out to pre-existing fleet vehicles. In 2020, nine Yutong E10s, the first zero-emissions buses in West Yorkshire, entered service. This was followed by StreetDeck and GB Kite Electroliner

battery electric bus A battery electric bus is an electric bus that is driven by an electric motor and obtains energy from on-board batteries. Many trolleybuses use batteries as an auxiliary or emergency power source. Battery electric buses offer the potential for z ...

es produced by Wrightbus, arriving from 2024. These did not come in LeedsCity Green livery and instead painted into the new 2024 standard livery with Leeds Electric skylines added. Pre-existing fleet vehicles that are not electric at both Bramley and Hunslet depots are also set to receive this new grey-fronted purple livery minus the Leeds Electric branding. In partnership with

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. Leeds has had a council since 1626, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 it has been a metropolitan borough council. It provides the ...

and

West Yorkshire Combined Authority The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) is the combined authority for West Yorkshire in England. It was established by statutory instrument under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 on 1 April 2014. It is a ...

, First Leeds also operates a network of

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...

bus services in the city. As of June 2022, there are three sites at

Elland Road Elland Road, or Elland Road Stadium, is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the Home (sports), home of Leeds United F.C., Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the List of foot ...

, Temple Green and Stourton, numbered P&R1-3 respectively. The network first went into operation in June 2014 with the early opening of the Elland Road site for the '' Grand Départ'' of the 2014 Tour de France, followed by a full opening later that month. A second site at Temple Green was opened in 2017, and a third site powered by self-sustainable

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s was opened in Stourton in 2021. The network is operated by a fleet of hybrid electric Wright StreetDeck HEV and battery electric Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV double-deck vehicles branded in dedicated liveries. This is to be soon replaced by a small fleet of Wright StreetDeck Electroliner battery electric double-decker buses.

Bradford

First Bradford operate buses in Bradford and surrounding areas. Bradford's flagship services are the Leeds to Bradford 72 and express X6 services, which run via Bowling Back Lane depot. However, the 72 route was run by Bramley depot until late 2018 where operations transferred over to Back Bowling Lane depot in Bradford. In 2012, refurbished former ftr Wright StreetCar articulated buses operated route 72. These were withdrawn in July 2016 and replaced by a fleet of double-deck Wright StreetDeck vehicles delivered in both Olympia for route 72 and the distinctive Olympia-Express livery the X6. In March 2022, ahead of the start of Bradford's Clean Air Zone later that year, First Bradford launched the City of Bradford branding, which was first applied to 28 new Wright StreetDeck Ultroliners delivered for service on the X6, 72 and X11, replacing older 2016 and 2017 StreetDecks and StreetDeck Micro Hybrids. This was followed by 11 new ''City of Bradford''-branded Wright StreetLite Max Ultroliners entering service in the summer, whilst some pre-existing fleet vehicles based at Bradford Bowling Back Lane depot were painted in the 2-tone blue livery. Like with First Leeds, the City of Bradford livery is dropped in favour of the new 2024 standard livery.

Halifax, Calder Valley & Huddersfield

First Halifax, Calder Valley & Huddersfield is an amalgamation of the First Halifax and First Huddersfield operations, running services in their respective towns as well as the Calder Valley region. Until recently, some buses in Halifax and Huddersfield were branded for the ''Holme Valley Connection'', ''Calder Connect, Red Arrow'' and ''Zest'' networks respectively, with refurbished buses receiving free WiFi and an improvement in bus frequency. In 2018, the ''HD Connect'' network was launched in Huddersfield, with buses for services 370, 371 and 372 receiving new blue-front branding, live service tracking and ticket machines with

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC) for making sec ...

. The ''HD Connect'' network has expanded on these services since. First Halifax initially opted for the HX Connect livery, with a darker blue front, but it was soon discontinued and replaced by the Olympia-Urban livery, otherwise known as 'hybrid-Olympia'. In April 2023, the 184 service, previously run by First Greater Manchester from

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

to Grotton and

was transferred to First Huddersfield, now running from

to Marsden Hard End and

to replace the 183 bus service. This service is now operated by

Stagecoach Manchester Stagecoach ManchesterCompanies House extract company no 2818654

due to Tranche 2 of Bee Network bus franchising. This was also due to the

and West Yorkshire Metro reducing funding in the service. Service changes at the start of 2024, meant renumbering bus routes in First Halifax, Calder Valley and Huddersfield, including the 503 which was renumbered to 501 with an additional express service launched, X1. As a result, First Halifax decided to route-brand some of their existing fleet vehicles with Elland Lines to represent the Halifax/Huddersfield corridor. Like with First Leeds and Bradford, HD Connect and the Olympia-Urban livery has been dropped in favour of the new 2024 standard livery, with the pre-existing fleet already starting to wear this new livery.

Fleet

As of July 2017, the First West Yorkshire fleet consisted of 882 buses, mainly consisting of buses manufactured by Wrightbus, Alexander Dennis and Yutong.

FTR and Hyperlink

In 2006, following the introduction of the service in York, which had been beset by problems, Leeds was chosen to be the second First operation to launch an FTR (stylised ''ftr'') service. 17 articulated Wright StreetCars were initially acquired for the service, which was officially launched in August 2007 following the alteration of bus lanes, road layouts and the construction of raised kerbs at bus stops. The FTR StreetCars operated on the 4 service serving

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 25,393. History T ...

, central Leeds and Seacroft until 2012, when they were redeployed and refurbished alongside ex-York StreetCars to operate on the Leeds-Bradford ''Hyperlink'' route 72; these were finally withdrawn in 2016 and replaced with StreetDecks.

References

External links

*
First West Yorkshire Limited
on

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the Company register, register of companies, employs the company registrars and is responsible for Incorporation (business), incorporating all forms of Company, co ...

First BradfordFirst Halifax, Calder Valley & Huddersfield
an
First Leeds
website {{FirstGroup FirstGroup bus operators in England Bus operators in West Yorkshire