More about Coastliner
In 2003 at Yorkshire Coastliner we celebrated a double anniversary.
75 Years
It was in 1928 that the West Yorkshire Road Car Co. Ltd. first introduced a through bus service linking Leeds, York, Malton and Scarborough. The journey then took 3 hours 50 minutes and buses run approximately every 2 hours.
20 Years
It was in 1983 that West Yorkshire Road Car decided to introduce a brand name for its services between Leeds and the Yorkshire Coast, the title Yorkshire Coastliner being chosen. Later, in 1990, Yorkshire Coastliner became a separate limited company maintining and developing the distinct identity in place today.
The origins of Yorkshire Coastliner Ltd. lie within the West
Yorkshire Road Car Company Ltd., which was formed in 1927 and had its headquarters in Harrogate.
West Yorkshire expanded rapidly in the late 1920s and early 1930s, introducing
the service linking Leeds and Scarborough, via Tadcaster, York and Malton
in 1928.
The service was initially operated by the company's Leeds depot and ran at two hourly intervals during the day, taking 3 hours 55 minutes to complete the journey at a cost of 4/6d single (7/6d return).
West Yorkshire first had a depot in the Malton area in 1933 when the local firm of William Suddaby was purchased, and a further significant move in the same year was the purchase of the Tadcaster based firm of Corcoran Brothers, which had been competing with West Yorkshire on the Leeds to Scarborough route.
The
West Yorkshire depot was in Norton, but in 1940 land near Malton Station
was bought from the London and North Eastern Railway on which to build a
depot. Because of the War it was not until 1949 that the new depot was built,
at a cost of some £20,000.
This new depot, still the operating centre of Yorkshire Coastliner Ltd., was brought into use on 3rd April 1950. Strangely, although the depot is adjacent to Malton Rail Station, and the postal address is Malton, it is actually in Norton.
The new depot opened as a sub-depot of West Yorkshire's York Depot, with
an allocation of just 10 buses and was to remain so for many years. By this
time West Yorkshire had come under the control of the British Transport Commission,
created in 1948, so effectively West Yorkshire had been nationalised.
At this time the Leeds to Scarborough service was numbered 43 and was run by buses from four depots, Leeds, York, Malton and Scarborough in the familiar West Yorkshire livery of red and cream. It still ran as a through service every two hours, although by changing at York advantage could be taken of the Harrogate-York-Scarborough service (74), to give an hourly service. Journey time on the through service was now down to 3 hours 3 minutes and the fare was still only 5/- single (8/- return).
In the late 1960s the National Bus Company was formed bringing most large
bus companies under a single state controlled body, a change to a livery
of all-over poppy red, with little white relief, soon being applied to West
Yorkshire buses.
In early 1983 West Yorkshire decided to better promote its services to the East Coast and held a competition among staff to choose a suitable name. The winner won a weekend in London for two, but could not have realised how important his choice of "Yorkshire Coastliner" would prove. A special livery for vehicles used on the services was devised by West Yorkshire's Publicity Officer, breaking away from the corporate National Bus colour scheme.
Changes in the bus industry later in the 1980s saw the break-up of the National
Bus Company, bringing West Yorkshire Road Car Company into private ownership,
under the control of the AJS Group.
The company was very quickly broken up into smaller companies and from August 1988 Malton and York depots came under the control of a new separate company, York City & District. Further changes resulted in the formation of a separate company, Yorkshire Coastliner Ltd., on 1st January 1990. Later that year the rest of York City & District passed to Yorkshire Rider Ltd. and is now part of First Group. Yorkshire Coastliner Ltd., with its operating centre at Malton then became a subsidiary of Blazefield Holdings Ltd. in August 1991, along with the other two remaining AJS companies in Yorkshire, Harrogate & District and Keighley & District.
Under Blazefield ownership considerable investment has been made in new buses, and the services run have grown from strength to strength. The company now runs 20 high-quality accessible vehicles from its Malton base, all in an attractive blue colour scheme, with route maps on the rear, and full branding for the services operated.
Coastliner is one of five companies within the Blazefield Holdings group. Blazefield Holdings has been owned by Transdev UK plc, the sixth largest bus operator in the UK, since January 2006.
As
well as the hourly service between Leeds, York, Malton, and Scarborough Yorkshire
Coastliner runs regularly to Whitby, Pickering, Thornton le Dale, Filey and
Bridlington. The combined frequency between Leeds, Tadcaster, York and Malton
is now half hourly most of the day.
With a journey time of 2 hours 50 minutes between Leeds and Scarborough, a saving of more than an hour on those pioneering days of 1928 has been achieved.
Timetable
Info: (01653) 692 556 |