MetroBus History
The fleetname "Metro" was applied across the fleet, but it was suffixed by the area of operation which was Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield or Calderdale. Buses in West Yorkshire are operated by private companies, with early morning, late evening, Sunday and rural services often supported by Metro. They have a special rural bus section, which promotes a combination of minor local links and major long distance routes in the county.
1 April 1974 West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive was created by merging the municipal bus fleets of Bradford City Transport, Leeds City Transport, Huddersfield Joint Ominibus Committee and Halifax Joint Ominibus Committee who earlier in the seventies swallowed up Todmorden Joint Omnibus Committee. The acquired companies were divided into four districts and a new livery of Cream & Verona Green replaced the former Bradford light blue & cream, Huddersfield red & cream, Leeds two-tone green and Halifax & Calderdale, orange, green & cream. created following the Local Government Act of 1972. The Executive had to operate within the policy guidelines of the County Council Public Transport Committee, coordinating the operation of all public transport in the county. The Executive also inherited approximately 1500 buses operated by the former municipal authorities of Bradford, Leeds, Halifax and Huddersfield along with 6000 staff and the associated garages and street furniture. The executive relinquished ownership of local buses following the Transport Act 1985, creating arms-length operating companies. It continued to coordinate public transport as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority when the metropolitan county was abolished in 1986. New buses were purchased in large numbers at the outset. During 1976 Further expansion was gained when the operations & fleet of "Baddeley Brothers Ltd" of Holmfirth was purchased providing the PTE with additional coaching and Stage-carriage duties. During 1980 The Baddeley Brothers business was also disposed of, although the Metrocoach operation was retained.
Fleet livery In 1976 modifications were made to the livery. Originally there were three stripes at the sides of the destination box that wrapped round to the sides of the bus and swept down. This took time to apply, and a trial was made with one thin line. In 1977 a further modification was made when the lines were removed entirely and the green area at the skirting area of was raised up: thus there was slightly more green. The other change was the fleet name, which was known as MetroBus, removing the district names.
Late 1976 To make transfers easier between districts, it was decided to drop the district name, Buses now just carried "Metro". New vehicles were delivered with these fleetnames earlier in 1976 25 April 1977 In this month, the PTE acquired the old-established Kinsley based "United Services" from W.R & P Bingley. As well as providing the PTE with yet more coaching operations, this new acquisition also took it into an area of West Yorkshire where it had previously had no presence. United Services was maintained as a separate subsidiary and retained its distinctive blue livery whilst a new colour of red & ivory was adopted for the PTEs coaches which operated under the "Metrocoach" banner, with brown added for "Metrocoach Executive". Later on the Bingley's depot as it was known, received some double deckers transferred from the PTEs Leeds District Early 1981 A reorganisation of the PTEs operating districts was implemented with the East District becoming responsible for the various Leeds Depots & United Services, whilst the West District took control of Bradford, Halifax, Todmorden and Huddersfield. Also Three new Leyland National 2s were acquired for the United Services subsidiary, carrying the blue livery
New integrated bus system During July 1981 MetroBus (the WYPTE) and the National Bus Company (NBC) formed a new integrated transport system for West Yorkshire, known as the "Metro-National Transport Company Ltd". All PTE and NBC buses in the West Yorkshire area began to appear with a new emblem, which consisted of the MetroBus WY's in one box and the NBC "double N" or "N-blem" appearing in another to the right of the PTE emblem, and slightly lower, both boxes were linked to show the integration. They also appeared with MetroBus fleetnames with "The easy way from here to there in West Yorkshire"
July 1981 In 1981, a new joint company was formed by the PTE and the National Bus Company under the title of "Metro-National Transport Co Ltd" with the object being the development of an integrated transport system throughout the county. This resulted in the newly introduced "Metrobus" fleetname being applied not only to PTE owned vehicles on which WYPTE lettering was carried beneath the fleet name, but also a large number of NBC subsidiaries, "West Yorkshire Road Car Company", "West Riding Automobile Company Limited", "Yorkshire Woollen Transport Company Limited" and "Yorkshire Traction Company Limited". Those buses carried "West Yorkshire", "West Riding", "Yorkshire" and "Yorkshire Traction" names below the Metrobus name. Some years later, some of those companies (excluding Yorkshire Traction) were repainted into the PTEs verona cream & Buttermilk livery as to present a corporate image. From this date the "WY" logo on the front of buses was replaced by the "Metro-National" emblem
Mid 1983 To celebrate 100 years of public transport in Huddersfield, MetroBus decided to paint up two vehicles in old liveries, Leyland Atlantean carried Huddersfield Corporation red livery and Huddersfield Tramways livery, these buses later became "Building on a Great Tradition" vehicles and were kept in those liveries until the late 90s
De-regulation De-regulation occurred on Sunday 26 October 1986. The WYPTE bus division was renamed Yorkshire Rider and with it a new livery of dark olive green and cream was used and a stylised "YR" emblem, five double-decker buses were operated in each of the municipal council's colours (already included were the two Huddersfield buses), with words on the sides between the decks saying "Building on a Great Tradition". The bus services and fare/bus pass/timetables division was renamed Metro.
Read more about this topic: West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive
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