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 Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE), at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yo ...

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 Calderdale () is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 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 ...

, 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 Yorkshire Rider was a bus company operating in West Yorkshire, England. The company was formed in 1986 out of the bus operations of the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. It was later bought by the Badgerline Group, who later bec ...

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 Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Emp ...

, the largest ESOP arrangement in the United Kingdom at the time. In August 1989, Yorkshire Rider purchased the

West Yorkshire Road Car Company The West Yorkshire Road Car Company was a major bus operator operating in North and West Yorkshire between 1906 and 1987. History West Yorkshire The Harrogate Road Car Company was formed in 1906, running at first steam buses in Harrogate, then ...

, 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 Badgerline was a bus operator in and around Bristol from 1985 until 2003. Its headquarters were in Weston-super-Mare. Initially a part of the Bristol Omnibus Company, it was privatised in September 1986 and sold to Badgerline Holdings in a man ...

for £38 million (). Badgerline and its subsidiaries were later merged with the

GRT Group GRT Group was a bus operating company in the United Kingdom from 1989 until 1995. It was formed when First Aberdeen, Grampian Regional Transport (GRT) was privatised. It went on to purchase a number of bus companies in England and Scotland. In ...

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 StreetDeck The Wright StreetDeck is an integral double-decker bus manufactured by Wrightbus since 2014, originally delivered as standard with a Daimler OM934 diesel engine. Hybrid-electric, full-electric and hydrogen-powered variants have subsequently be ...

s 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 Wrightbus is a Northern Irish bus manufacturer and a pioneer of the low-floor bus. The company was established in 1946 by Robert Wright and was later run by his son William Wright, until it was acquired in 2019 by British businessman Jo Bamf ...

, 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 The 2014 Tour de France was the 101st edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race included 21 stages, starting in Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, on 5 July and finishing on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 27 July. The race ...

, 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 A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that couples a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) with one or more electric engines into a combined propulsion system. The presence of the electric powertrain, which has i ...

Wright StreetDeck HEV and battery electric

Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV The Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV is a battery electric bus, battery electric double-decker bus produced by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis in partnership with Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD Auto since 2018. Based on its ...

double-deck vehicles branded in dedicated liveries. This is to be soon replaced by a small fleet of

Wright StreetDeck Electroliner The Wright StreetDeck is an integral double-decker bus manufactured by Wrightbus since 2014, originally delivered as standard with a Daimler AG, Daimler OM934 diesel engine. Hybrid-electric, full-electric and hydrogen-powered variants have subse ...

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 The Wright StreetCar is an articulated bus developed by Wrightbus and Volvo for FirstGroup. It was built on the Volvo B7LA chassis, featuring a separate driver compartment at the front, resembling to some extent similar designs in Europe. It ...

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 Calder may refer to: People * Calder (surname) * Clan Calder, a Highland Scottish clan Places * Calder, Tasmania, Australia, a locality * Calder, Edmonton, a neighbourhood in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada * Calder, Saskatchewan, Canada ...

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 First Greater Manchester is a bus operator in Greater Manchester. It is a subsidiary of the FirstGroup, operating franchised Bee Network bus services on contract to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). The operator was once dominant in the n ...

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 ...

Grotton Grotton is a residential area in Saddleworth, a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. Located along the A669 road, it forms a continuous urban area with Austerlands and Springhead, which in turn ...

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 The Bee Network is an integrated transport network for Greater Manchester, comprising bus, tram, cycling and walking routes. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is expected to have commuter rail services joining the network in 2028. Initial ...

bus franchising The Bus Services Act 2017 (c. 21) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provides for local transport authorities to create partnership schemes to improve bus services in their areas, and to introduce advanced ticketing schemes. T ...

. This was also due to the

and

West Yorkshire Metro Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE), at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yo ...

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

Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom, with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, ...

and

Yutong Yutong (officially Zhengzhou Yutong Group Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese manufacturer of commercial vehicles, especially electric buses, headquartered in Zhengzhou, Henan. Yutong also has businesses in construction machinery, real estate, and other in ...

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

s 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 Seacroft is an outer-city suburb/township consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies in the LS14 LS postcode area, Leeds postcode area, around east of Leeds city cen ...

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