Yorkshire Rider - History

History

August 1986 Deregulation Day: 26 October 1986 As a requirement of the 1985 Transport Act, the PTE transferred its bus operations and those of United Services to a new company "Yorkshire Rider Limited", It was registred at 1 Swinegate, Leeds. At the same time introducing a new livery of Bright Green & Jonquil. The new Yorkshire Rider fleet name was applied to the company's buses suffixed by its area of operation; Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Todmorden and Wakefield. And with deregulation being effective from the same date, the minibus started operating for the first time. The minibuses had "Micro Rider" fleet names. The coaching fleet, MetroCoach also was transformed with a new Oatmeal livery with red and gold stripes to which a new fleetname "Gold Rider" was added.

Also minibuses started operating and Sovereign Street depot in Leeds City Centre is now solely a minibus depot. Leeds Middleton & Huddersfield Longroyd Bridge depots were closed at de-regulation too. Stickers that were added to the old MetroBus livery, Fleetnames, Welcome Aboard and "Serving the People of West Yorkshire" stickers were all added to try and help passengers recognise their bus and not to use a bus operated by one of many competitors that were introduced in 1986. Also to note is the numeral aperture, all services in Halifax had 500 added to their number in the late 70s and therefore three numbers had to be displayed, this was very unsatisfactory on these buses. 300 was added to Huddersfield services and 600 added to Bradford services. A much newer vehicle.

14 June 1987: Today Halifax held a depot open day celebrating 75 of motor buses in Halifax and 80 years in Todmorden, Olympian 5096 A96KUM was painted into the old Halifax green and brown livery and Fleetline 7006 SUA6R was painted into the Todmorden green colours, In later years the Halifax bus became a "Building on a Great Tradition" bus and the Todmorden livery was transferred onto a new Olympian when 7006 was withdrawn

October 1987: An urgent need for double deckers saw Yorkshire Rider turn to the secondhand market.

21 October 1988: To comply with the 1985 Transport Act, the PTE offered its arms-length Yorkshire Rider company to the private sector and it was purchased by its management and employee. It became the first PTE companies to move out of the local authority sector

13 August 1989:Seeking expansion, Yorkshire Rider purchased the former NBC subsidiary, West Yorkshire Road Car Co Ltd. From the AJS Holdings subsidiary WY Travel Group Ltd, the deal bringing with it numerous services in the Leeds, Bradford and Otley areas.

September 1989: Wholesale withdrawals of minibuses started this month, when deregulation competition was starting to die down, services were reduced and that bigger buses or newer MCW Metroriders had started on the new services. Most of the older first-generation minibuses had gone by the end of 1992.

21 October 1988: To comply with the 1985 Transport Act, the PTE offered its arms-length Yorkshire Rider company to the private sector and it was purchased by its management and employee. It became the first PTE companies to move out of the local authority sector

13 August 1989: Seeking expansion, Yorkshire Rider purchased the former NBC subsidiary, West Yorkshire Road Car Co Ltd. From the AJS Holdings subsidiary WY Travel Group Ltd, the deal bringing with it numerous services in the Leeds, Bradford and Otley areas.

September 1989: Wholesale withdrawals of minibuses started this month, when deregulation competition was starting to die down, services were reduced and that bigger buses or newer MCW Metroriders had started on the new services. Most of the older first-generation minibuses had gone by the end of 1992.

19 January 1991: Former York City & District operations became York CityRider

31 March 1991: The former Reynard Buses, Navigation Road Garage at York was closed

April 1991: Rider Group took over the operations of Reynard Buses Ltd, and a new company Rider York Limited was formed. At first the York City Rider name was adopted for former York City & District vehicles with the other two retaining their own identities & liveries, but gradually all three were replaced by Rider York names & Standard Rider livery, Former Reynard Buses.

1 June 1991: Today, Sovereign Street Garage closed operationally, along with the associated Otley outstation that was acquired with the West Yorkshire business. However it remained in use for the Leeds Driving School until 14 October. The Garage buildings themselves were demolished on 9 September 1991. The garage became solely a Minibus base when minis were introduced to Leeds in 1986. The closure was brought about by a large reduction in services, especially minibus routes in Leeds. Remaining vehicles passed to Torre Road although many minis then went elsewhere.

28 October 1991: After floating on the stock exchange, as to have enough capital to purchase various operators. Rider Holdings bidded for five London bus route tenders. Four were Double Deck routes and one was Single Deck, requiring a total of 65 vehicles and a staff of 160. The routes were in Croydon, Bromley and Thornton Heath and a garage would have been opened in Croydon. Sadly, the bid was unsuccessful and Rider Holdings never tried again.

27 June 1992: Headingley Garage closed today. It was replaced by a new garage at Kirkstall Road. The premises at Kirkstall Road had been the Central Works and it was part of that building that was converted. On closure all Double deck vehicles transferred to Kirkstall Road and single deckers went to Torre Road. The depot comprised Ex West Yorkshire Bristol VRTs, Leyland Tigers, Leyland Atlanteans and Alexander bodied Scania Double deckers

28 June 1992: Pride of the Road's local bus operations in Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield were purchased, bringing more services into the Rider fold. Pride of the Road. However the services continued until 8 August 1992 when they were withdrawn and St John's Garage closed; which was used for a couple of years by the Pride of the Road coach operation and the associated K-Line bus fleet.

21 June 1993: Today a new standard of service was launched to improve quality on Yorkshire Rider routes. "Flagship" services were launched in Halifax. Services 548/549 which run from Halifax to Brighouse & Rastrick/Nunnery Lane was the first service, this standard was later extended across Halifax and later to the other towns.

During 1993: Kinsley depot suffered a minor set back when more than half of its schools work was lost to other operators in a new round of tendering. The 428/9 service was acquired, it ran from Oulton to Morley, and included quite a lot of "dead" mileage. But meant the depot could stay open

5 October 1993: Yorkshire Rider acquired the small independent business Quickstep Travel. Quickstep started operating on 3 February 1992.

10 April 1994: Yorkshire Rider acquired the local bus operations of local independent Rhodes Coaches of Yeadon. It was decided to place these operations under control of Quickstep Travel.

15 April 1994: The company was purchased by Badgerline Group. Buses carried white signs in the back windows quoting "A Badgerline Group Company" and a picture of a stylised badger.

14 August 1994: Flagship was launched in Huddersfield.