Yes, that's fine if you want to truindle around the backstreets of Elland, but the X36 direct express service was withdrawn a few years ago (used to be every 30 mins)
I can remember when the X68 & 68 Halifax-Sheffield services were scheduled to take 25 minutes limited-stop between Halifax and Huddersfield, and that was before the Elland by-pass was built!
IIRC, one of the reasons the X36 was withdrawn was that even using the Elland by-pass, traffic congestion between Huddersfield and Ainley Top and Calder & Hebble and Halifax was so bad, that the limited stop service was taking almost as long as the stopping service. And, of course, it didn't serve Elland!
As you know, there used to be the route 43 worked jointly by Halifax and Huddersfield Corporations operating via Elland Wood Bottom, and West Vale was served by a separate trolleybus from Huddersfield. When that trolleybus service was disbanded, the Halifax-Huddersfield services ran via Elland Wood Bottom and West Vale alternately.
Now the 501/503 services all go via West Vale, and this, along with various changes to the road network in Elland and The Ainleys means they now follow a circuitous route through Elland, as you say.
But the OP did ask for instances where the service
frequency and not the journey-time, has been increased, and I still maintain that the current 8 minute service is the most frequent I have known on this route, regardless of the extra time involved.
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Guessing you mean the 503 - the 501 is only hourly in an evening.
Yes- my mistake, I meant the 503!
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Though they used to have half hourly minibus services to Old Town as well as the 593.
The evening and Sunday service is an improvement as for many years this was two-hourly (527 then later 532) but Mill Bank used to have an hourly service between the 564 and 566 with additional journeys on the 527. Between 1700 and 1800 in the 90s there were 3 journeys Halifax to Mill Bank.
They used to be somewhat quicker before everything was combined with the Copley services.
In theory, a half-hourly minibus service[operated by Tyrer and then First] was scheduled between Hebden Bridge and Old Town, but in latter days the anti-clockwise service via Dodd Naze terminated at Dodd Naze because of difficulties in negotiating the sharp left-hand turn at Mount Skip.
This left the clockwise service following a most-convoluted route via Keighley Rd, Pecket Well, Old Town,[turn round] Pecket Well, Crimsworth turning-circle, Pecket Well, Old Town [again], Mount Skip and Dodd Naze.
So, whereas in theory the residents of Old Town used to have a two minibuses per hour, it was the same bus. They could board it for a tour of Pecket Well and Crimsworth, or have an extra cup of coffee and wait 10 minutes for it to return! So, in effect, it was reduced to an hourly service.
I well remember journeys on the 527 Halifax-Rochdale via Mill Bank and Beehive, and the difficulties experienced by drivers trying to negotiate the tight corners and narrow lanes with a Plaxton Leopard.
As you say, that has now finished[much to the relief of those drivers, I suspect], and the Copley service has been incorporated into the Mill Bank & Ripponden service, also removing the need for the old Elland-Sowerby Bridge direct service via Wakefield Rd. So again, the residents of Mill Bank and Soyland have a longer journey to/from Halifax, but, as I said above, the OP asked for instances where the frequency not the time taken has increased, and I still think a regular hourly service from Mill Bank in both directions from 0711-2334 [M-F] and 1011-2334 [Suns] takes some beating.
Indeed, I've often wondered how long this frequent service will continue, for whenever I've enjoyed a run on it, I've often been the only passenger on the Sowerby Bridge-Ripponden section.
