1974 to 1999 25 Years- MetroBus to FirstBus
January 1995 Yorkshire Rider started
coming under the influence of Badgerline group policy and started
recieving a large influx of single deckers which included 110
buses for Huddersfield Depot alone to compete with the Yorkshire
Blue Bus operation in the town. The new single deckers, midibuses
and minibuses carried a new livery. Two tone green and cream was
used and a new name "Rider" was carried, The Yorkshire
Rider logo was ammended and was used on the sides of the vehicles
in light green. The new name "Rider Huddersfield",
"Rider Leeds" and "Rider Halifax" was carried
on buses, The badger logo was also carried on the livery.
Bradford didn't receive any new buses in the new livery. Only new
buses recieved the new name and livery all other older buses
continued operating in Yorkshire Rider livery.
The Rider Huddersfield logo can be seen here
This month the
first new Plaxton Verde bodied Dennis Lance single deckers
started to be delivered, the original batch was for 48 all for
Huddersfield, 78 are now operated at Huddersfield and Cherry Row.
The new "Rider" livery was carried except on 4001/2
which were delivered in Flagship livery Also the first of the
Mercedes minibuses to carry "Rider" livery appeared in
January in Halifax, many of these were delivered to Huddersfield
later in the year. A large number of these minibuses have since
been withdrawn and sold
February 1995 Another new type for Rider
introduced this month was the Alexander Dash bodied Dennis Dart,
50 buses were delivered for Rider Leeds. 
The 4th of this batch, brand
new 3222 is a Alexander Dash bodied Dennis Dart and shows off its
new livery and "Rider Leeds" fleetname, Also note the
Badger logo behind the rear wheelarch
14 February 1995 "Rider
Huddersfield" was officially launched today using 3 typical
buses, A Dennis Lance Plaxton Verde was used plus a Mercedes mini
of Halifax as Huddersfield's hadn't arrived yet. 18 Dennis Darts
were due for Huddersfield with Plaxton Pointer bodies, these
hadn't arrived yet so one of Leeds' Alexander Dashes was used.
The 14th Feb launch showing
4013 in the foreground outside Huddersfield Bus Station.
May 1995 Rider Huddersfield's
Plaxton Pointers finally turned up this month, a further 30 were
delivered in 1996 for Leeds
21 May 1995 Quickstep Travel's depot at Hunslet closed today, buses are now housed at Rider Leeds' Kirkstall Road Depot
16 June 1995 Badgerline group merged
with Grampian Regional Transport (GRT) to become FirstBus. Badger
logos were removed and a new grey f logo was introduced, Rear
windows now contained this logo and the side window next to the
door carried "Welcome to FirstBus" logos
23 July 1995 Today a large fire occured at Yorkshire Rider Leeds' Torre Road depot, many MCW Metrobuses and Leyland Atlanteans were distroyed
1
September 1995
Yorkshire Rider announced that they were to split up into
different trading divisions, Originally it was thought that each
company would be as separate as the Rider York unit but this
didn't really occur. From 1st September 1995, Yorkshire Rider
Leeds and Wakefield became Leeds City Link, Bradford was renamed
Bradford Traveller, Yorkshire Rider Halifax & Todmorden
became CalderLine (which was evetually changed to be Calderline),
Huddersfield became known as the unusual Kingfisher. This name
was changed to Kingfisher Huddersfield during 1996. Rider York
kept the same name. From this date the legal lettering on buses
was changed. The old "Yorkshire Rider Limited, 1 Swinegate,
Leeds" was replaced by individual legals for each company,
the names were all regarded as trading names as follows,
"Yorkshire Rider Limited, T/A Leeds City Link, Kirkstall
Road, Leeds LS3 1LH", Bradford Traveller was based at 61
Hall Ings, CalderLine at Skircoat Road and Kingfisher was at 8
Macaulay Street. New style fleetnames were applied to exsisting
vehicles, On vehicles that were in the Yorkshire Rider livery,
the green band was extended across where the YR logo used to be
on the side panels, and the new name applied there, this took
place except in Bradford where the new name was applied straight
on the yellow where the YR logo was removed from. On
"Rider" vehicles the new name was just stuck on where
the previous logo was used. New liveries were eventually going to
be introduced but this was put on hold until the FirstBus
corporate decision was decided, FirstBus may have introduced a
nationwide livery at this point
Leeds City Link
were to have this livery, Due to the late arrival of new
fleetname transfers many vehicles ran for months with no names as
shown above right. The new fleetnames are shown below, Below
right the bus has "Bradford Traveller" names on the
Yorkshire Rider livery, on the right a MCW Metrobus has had its
green stripe extended and now carries Leeds City Link fleetnames.
On the bottom row two vehicles in Rider livery show their new
names- Kingfisher on a Dennis Lance and CalderLine on a Mercedes
Minibus
25 September 1995 The long awited guided bus
way opened today on Scott Hall Road, since the first leg was
opened many more stretches along the same corridor have opened,
the Scania N113 buses have been since replaced by Scania L113 low
floor vehicles
8638 shows off
the Superbus livery, notice that the "Rider" logo had
been removed, the red lines were later continued to fill this gap
October 1995 Yorkshire Rider's first Low Floor buses entered service this month, the Wright Axcess Ultralow bodied Scania L113 was a new type for Rider, they are used on the York Park & Ride services
23 October 1995 The new Leeds City Bus Station opened today
Early 1996 FirstBus decided to not
introduce a corporate livery but they did design a corporate name
style that had to be adopted by all companies. The new font was
neat letters with the corporate f logo at the end. Kingfisher
at this point were renamed Kingfisher Huddersfield and all
vehicles gained new FirstBus corporate lettering, most of the
buses operated by the other units especially Calderline &
Bradford Traveller remained in operation with their original
logos as the main task now was the introduction of new unit
liveries.
Showing the FirstBus
corporate style fleetnames on Rider liveries are these three
photos
New
liveries were designed and all new buses plus many current buses
started to appear in the new liveries. Leeds City Link and
Quickstep Travel recieived a new red, orange, yellow and white
livery with the fleetname in red. Bradford Traveller trialed many
different blue liveries and finally settled on a two tone blue
scheme with a red band and red fleetnames, this livery was later
changed with white added and a blue fleetname being used.
Calderline introduced a new white livery with a blue skirt and
yellow band with these two stripes being used under the upstairs
windows, the skirt an band was upswept at the rear this feature
was discontinued in 1998. A blue fleetname was carried.
Kingfisher Huddersfield kept the Badgerline Rider livery with a
few alterations, a red fleetname was carried. Rider York
introduced a new green and cream livery with Red fleetnames.
These 4 pictures show the new liveries,
Kingfisher Huddersfield kept the former "Rider" livery
22 February 1996 Today the last Coach bodied Leyland Leopard was withdrawn, the last vehicle was 1544 KUB548V based at Halifax
20 April 1996 Today Leeds City Link's Torre Road depot closed its doors, the buses were moved to a new purpose built facility at Cherry Row which is quite near by
23 September 1996 The Gold Rider coaching operation and many high specification coaches were today sold to AJC Coaches, National Express services were retained and are still operated from Bramley Depot. In exchange for the coaches, Leeds City Link gained Angloblue's bus services
7 December 1996 Another new depot opened today, Great Northern Street Depot in Huddersfield closed and was replaced by a brand new depot further along Leeds Road at Old Fieldhouse Lane, The offices based at 8 Macaulay Street in the Town centre were also transfered to the new depot and legal lettering was changed to reflect this.
22 February 1997 Today Kinsley Garage at Wakefield closed. Routes were exchanged with West Riding and the 498/9 Wakefield to Doncaster service passed to Belle Isle and in return Leeds City Link received Yorkshire Buses' services 223/4 from Halifax to Leeds. The final allocation at Kinsley was Leyland National 1367, Dennis Darts 3246-3248, Leyland Olympians 5154, 5155 & Scania N113s 8625-8629.
April 1997 The first low floor version of a standard bus arrived in April 1997, The new Super Low Floor (SLF) version of the Dennis Dart Plaxton Pointer arrived in Leeds, many arrived in overall red diverted from a company that was to be set up in compeition with Stagecoach in Newcastle, These buses were quickly sold or transferred to York. Also this month, Rider turned to GM Buses again for secondhand double deckers, this time the Leyland Atlantean was chosen and about 20 were bought for operation in Huddersfield & Bradford. The standard GM body from Northern Counties was carried
20 September 1997 Hall Ings depot based under the Bradford Interchange closed, a brand new depot has be built to house Bradford Traveller vehicles at Bowling Back Lane. The depot under the Interchange is currently empty but reduced insize.
October 1997 The first new double
deckers since 1994 started to enter service in October, A new
FirstBus corporate interior was designed and all new buses from
here now carry that style up to the present day. The first of
approximately 60 Alexander Royale bodied Volvo Olympians were
delivered to Leeds, these buses were later delivered to Bradford,
Calderline and lots more for Leeds
.
5617 is shown
as delivered before being repainted into FirstGroup corporate
livery
December 1997 Yet again Rider turned their attention to second hand double deckers and a handful of Leyland Fleetlines were aquired from Manchester for operation in Halifax
Copyright West Yorkshire Buses Website 1999/2000, Some info is aquired from other sources, and is not my own info. Bus Fayre magazine and Badgerline and FirstBus handbooks have been used for exact dates and details. Thanks to Ivan Noble for copius information in relation to the History of Yorkshire Rider. Thanks to Michael Forster for the photo of 3222. The Rider launch photo was provided by Yorkshire Rider Limited. Please do not copy any information contained in the History of Yorkshire Rider without specific permission. Full completion: April 08, 2000, Last revised: August 25, 2002.