First Leeds

Infobox Company
company_name = First Leeds
company_
company_type = Public
foundation = 1995, formerly Yorkshire Rider
location = Kirkstall Road, Leeds
area_served = Leeds, Bradford, Ilkley, Skipton
homepage = [http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/yorkhumber/leeds www.firstgroup.com]
footnotes =

First Leeds is a bus operator based in and around Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. As a branch of First Group, it is the dominant public transport company in the city.

History

Following bus deregulation in 1986, MetroBus's (the West Yorkshire PTE) fleet was rebranded as Yorkshire Rider Ltd. The livery changed from verona green and buttermilk to a bright green and cream livery and a new logo with was a stylised "YR" logo, plus the name "Yorkshire Rider", there was an area on the logo which incorporated the town in which the bus garage for that bus was located. In October 1988 Yorkshire Rider was privatised being bought by its management for £23million.

Yorkshire Rider was then bought out by Badgerline, a Bristol based bus company, in 1994. Following the merger of Badgerline with GRT Ltd to form First Bus in 1995, its services were rebranded:
* Leeds City Link - covering the Leeds area and based at depots in Hunslet, Bramley and Cherry Row
* Calderline - covering Halifax and Calderdale, and based at garages in Halifax and Todmorden
* Kingfisher Huddersfield - covering Kirklees, and with garages at Old Field House Lane
* Bradford Traveller - covering Bradford, and with a depot at Bowling Back Lane

Yorkshire Rider was later rebranded again and these names were replaced with First Leeds, First Calderline, First Huddersfield and First Bradford. Despite rebranding, the legal name of the company is still Yorkshire Rider Ltd, although it is now Yorkshire Rider "trading as" a First group service.

Until recently, another company, First Quickstep, was also part of the First group. It was based at the same Kirkstall Road depot as First Leeds but was a separate organization. It is now a part of First Leeds and It currently runs the FreeCityBus service.

In July 2005 the company took over Morley-based Black Prince Buses, a large independent company which was once a rival to Yorkshire Rider. The Morley depot was closed down and most of the fleet were sold on, with the exception of a couple of single-deckers and the large fleet of Scania N113 double-deckers, which were repainted into First livery and placed on the 2/3/3A and 12/13/13A services until summer 2007, when most of them were withdrawn and replaced by brand new Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Geminis. Some Scanias remained on the routes until early 2008 when more B9TLs arrived. There are still a few left in service, used on a wide range of the company's services across West Yorkshire.

On 18 May 2008 the Kirkstall Road depot was closed after 111 years of public use and operations were moved to a new complex in Hunslet [ cite web|url=http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/yorkhumber/leeds/news/index.php?item=2392&show=1|title=New £10million First Bus HQ in Leeds Will Help Tackle Road Congestion|publisher=First Group|accessdate=2008-05-28] . The site will be redeveloped as part of Leeds City Council's Kirkstall Road Renaissance Area project [ cite web|url=http://www.leeds.gov.uk/Housing/Planning/Planning_policy/Kirkstall_Road_Renaissance_Area__Planning_Framework.aspx|title=Kirkstall Road Renaissance Area - Planning Framework|publisher=Leeds City Council|accessdate=2008-05-28] .

Fleet

It has an extremely large fleet which includes a number of Wright Eclipse Gemini, Solar and articulated buses, which are Volvo B10LA's, as well as Dennis Darts with a mixture of Alexander Dash (new in 1995) and Plaxton Pointer (1996).

Other buses in the fleet include a large batch of Volvo B7TL's with Alexander ALX400 new between 2000-2 and a sizable batch of Volvo Olympians with Alexander Royale bodywork new in 1997/8, older double deckers include some Leyland Olympians with Roe and Optare bodywork (Optares being new in 1985-7, built to a Roe design) bought new between 1982-7 (of which a lot were withdrawn in 2006), they also have a big batch of Scania N113's, some new mainly with Alexander bodywork plus one with Northern Counties Palatine in 1990/1, some Alexanders from Black prince (new in 1989-91) and some long-wheelbase East Lancs E-type bodied examples new to Hull in 1989. Most of the Scania deckers have been withdrawn or transferred within the Group by a batch of 30 new Wright Eclipse Geminis on the Volvo B9TL.

They also have a lot of Alexander Strider bodied Scania N113's new in 1993/4 at a time when single deckers were bough in large numbers, they also have 5 1994 L113's with the same bodywork which came from York when a year old. Low floor single deckers are mainly Wright bodied Scanias bough in 1998-9, early ones are L113 and later ones are the L94UB, the newest single deckers are Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse Urban's new in Spring 2008.

Leyland Atlantean

For many years the company operated a large fleet of Leyland Atlanteans which were seen as Leeds' answer to the AEC Routemaster as they were the most popular and largest fleet in the city. The most popular of these was the Roe bodied Atlantean and you couldn't go ten seconds without seeing one in the street. The Atlanteans were well maintained running for nearly 4 decades and even with the introduction of low-floor Volvo B7TL's the buses still remained in service until May 2004 when the last ones were withdrawn. Most of them have now either being scrapped or are in preservation, but they will always remain the symbol of Yorkshire Rider. In fact, the original Yorkshire Rider livery was designed primarily for the Atlantean.

ervices

First Leeds operates services mainly in the Leeds area but also run services into Bradford, Ilkley and Skipton. The services operate from various depots in Leeds.

Overground

In the last few years, First has introduced branding known as 'Overground' on bus services which are frequent during the daytime. Based on the London Underground network where each frequent service is given a recognisable colour, each Overground service also has its own colour line. The concept is now a prominent fixture throughout all First bus companies in the UK. The standard frequency of services is 10 minutes. In other areas, some services have Overground frequencies of 15 or 20 minutes.

In December 2007, First changed some of its Overground route colours. The 2 service changed from Yellow to Red, combining with services 3 & 3A, while the 12 service changed from Green to Blue, combining with services 13 & 13A. The decision was made by First Leeds because they believe it would "make it simpler to identify where the buses go" [ cite web|url=http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/yorkhumber/leeds/pdfs/LeedsFTKnowDec07.pdf|title=First To Know|publisher=First Group|accessdate=2007-12-12] .

Late Night Buses

First Leeds operate two night bus services every Friday and Saturday night, the 921 and 928. From early November until Christmas then Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, First also run several night buses along existing routes every Friday and Saturday night.

ftr

On 3 January 2007, a new concept of public transport was introduced to Leeds, the ftr. This was introduced onto the Olive Line 4 service from Whinmoor to Pudsey.

It is the second scheme to be introduced by First Group after the first scheme in York. However the scheme in York has faced many troubles like underpowering of the engine and ticket machine problems. However the engine problems have been rectified and "Customer Service Hosts" have been employed who will issue tickets to passengers. Also unlike York where the 4 service was converted to ftr vehicle operation within a day. First decided to drip feed the ftr vehicles onto the service so passengers could get used to it and also minimise all other troubles that occurred in York.

The ftr are based on Wright StreetCar body which is on a Volvo B7LA chassis, however the chassis on the StreetCars are different from the conventional B7LA where there isn't the "closet" at the rear of vehicle. The livery is designed by Ray Stenning's Best Impressions design agency.

References

External links

* [http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/yorkhumber/leeds/home/index.php First Leeds]
* [http://www.firstgroup.com/students First for Students]
* [http://jacksbusphotos.fotopic.net/c1167848.html First Leeds Photos]