Yorkshire Buses to cease trading

[Andyh82]

It’s reported on the Metro website that Yorkshire Travel Group trading as Yorkshire Buses are shutting up shop as of today

https://www.wymetro.com/plan-a-journey/travel-news/bus-travel-alerts/yorkshire-buses/

Disruption
Services affected: 1, 30, 61, 61A, 116, 118 & 212
Yorkshire Buses have given notification that they will cease operations from tomorrow (1st April). This will impact a number of services from today (31st March).

We are working hard to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum and are seeking alternative operators to cover the following services:

Service 30 – Horsforth - Pudsey (off peak service)
Service 61 – St James Hospital - Hunslet (South Leeds Stadium)
Service 116 – Leeds – Ossett - Wakefield
Service 118 – Wakefield - White Rose Centre (evenings only. Daytime service operated by Arriva is not affected)
Service 212 – Wakefield - Batley – Dewsbury

Service 1 – Leeds – Wakefield is also affected.

We will provide more information as soon as we can. For more information, visit wymetro.com or call Metroline on 0113 245 7676 for alternative routes and services.

They’ve operated a small ever changing fleet and ever changing network of services in the few years they’ve been operating previously including a commercial service through Headingley, the Wakefield area hospitals 113 bus and the Huddersfield University shuttle, although have settled on these services in recent times and mostly use ex-London B9TLs. The 30 was generally operated by a Caetano Levante coach.

PVR was 8 buses (9 buses including the school services not shown in the list)

 

[duncombec]

The attached notice was posted to the company Facebook page at 17:24.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

With the continued rising costs including fuel and many other significant increases, it has become unsustainable for us to continue.

Yorkshire Buses will cease operations from 8pm tonight.

We thank you for your business and support over the years.

There was a more extensive post it was attached to, but the bulk of the details, such as there are any, were in the image.

 

[pdq]

Could be awkward tomorrow when the school bus doesn't run. I've seen this, but I guess most parents won't have... Would they have had to give notice to Metro/WYCA and other bodies?

 

[Tetchytyke]

Would they have had to give notice to Metro/WYCA and other bodies?

Technically yes. But if the price of diesel now means they’re insolvent then they can’t keep trading.

As per the other thread, there is an announcement on the Metro website now.

 

[BULLSAREMAGIC]

The attached notice was posted to the company Facebook page at 17:24.



There was a more extensive post it was attached to, but the bulk of the details, such as there are any, were in the image.

Sadly this illustrates the tight margins operators work on.

 

[Ballyheigue]

This is why these far caps need upping significantly, the additional cost of trying to procure replacements for the likes of the 30 and 61 will once again be down to the tax payer. People can afford to pay more so they should, or walk. To give you an example, some joke of a man from Leeds recently wrote to the Metro paper that he couldn't afford the cost of living and was left with £9 after paying everything out. He was reliant on bail outs from his parents. After listing all his out goings, he listed Gym Membership fees (!), Mobile phone contract fees (what's wrong with pay as you go and cutting back on calls), the cost of an M Card even though he lived in a flat close to the city centre at £900 rent a month, and get this, the cost of his nights out each week! He worked as a barman by the way, more money than sense which I suspect is the same for many a person in the city who moans about the cost of living lol.

 

[Leyland Bus]

This is why these far caps need upping significantly, the additional cost of trying to procure replacements for the likes of the 30 and 61 will once again be down to the tax payer. People can afford to pay more so they should, or walk. To give you an example, some joke of a man from Leeds recently wrote to the Metro paper that he couldn't afford the cost of living and was left with £9 after paying everything out. He was reliant on bail outs from his parents. After listing all his out goings, he listed Gym Membership fees (!), Mobile phone contract fees (what's wrong with pay as you go and cutting back on calls), the cost of an M Card even though he lived in a flat close to the city centre at £900 rent a month, and get this, the cost of his nights out each week! He worked as a barman by the way, more money than sense which I suspect is the same for many a person in the city who moans about the cost of living lol.

Granted, there is quite abit of "fat" there to trim but are barmen really on huge amounts of money?! Seems more like misplaced priorities than "more money than sense"??

 

[BULLSAREMAGIC]

This is why these far caps need upping significantly, the additional cost of trying to procure replacements for the likes of the 30 and 61 will once again be down to the tax payer. People can afford to pay more so they should, or walk. To give you an example, some joke of a man from Leeds recently wrote to the Metro paper that he couldn't afford the cost of living and was left with £9 after paying everything out. He was reliant on bail outs from his parents. After listing all his out goings, he listed Gym Membership fees (!), Mobile phone contract fees (what's wrong with pay as you go and cutting back on calls), the cost of an M Card even though he lived in a flat close to the city centre at £900 rent a month, and get this, the cost of his nights out each week! He worked as a barman by the way, more money than sense which I suspect is the same for many a person in the city who moans about the cost of living lol.

Surely this character forgot the cost of his tattoos. his takeaways and his other assorted unnecessary gadgets

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Could be awkward tomorrow when the school bus doesn't run. I've seen this, but I guess most parents won't have... Would they have had to give notice to Metro/WYCA and other bodies?

You do realise schools are on holiday for Easter?

 

[pdq]

You do realise schools are on holiday for Easter?

Not all schools. Ours breaks on Thursday. Anyway, email has gone out from the school advising parents.

 

[py_megapixel]

This is why these far caps need upping significantly, the additional cost of trying to procure replacements for the likes of the 30 and 61 will once again be down to the tax payer. People can afford to pay more so they should, or walk. To give you an example, some joke of a man from Leeds recently wrote to the Metro paper that he couldn't afford the cost of living and was left with £9 after paying everything out. He was reliant on bail outs from his parents. After listing all his out goings, he listed Gym Membership fees (!), Mobile phone contract fees (what's wrong with pay as you go and cutting back on calls), the cost of an M Card even though he lived in a flat close to the city centre at £900 rent a month, and get this, the cost of his nights out each week! He worked as a barman by the way, more money than sense which I suspect is the same for many a person in the city who moans about the cost of living lol.

I'm sorry to say the attitude of this post is horrendous.

Agree if I were short of money I'd probably not pay for gym membership but if he enjoys going to the gym it's reasonable that he would be reluctant to give that up.

A mobile phone contract is often cheaper than PAYG these days even for relatively limited usage.

As for your comment implying he shouldn't live close to the centre of Leeds - I'm glad you're in a position where you could happily uproot and move for cheaper housing, but that is not a reasonable expectation of the majority of the population.

How about we look (not in this thread!) at some of the structural issues in society, and political choices, that are leading to life getting rapidly less affordable, rather than punching down at someone you don't even know who it seems just wants to work to support themselves and enjoy life a bit? That really shouldn't be too much to ask, should it.

 

[Twingo37175]

I'm sorry to say the attitude of this post is horrendous.

Agree if I were short of money I'd probably not pay for gym membership but if he enjoys going to the gym it's reasonable that he would be reluctant to give that up.

A mobile phone contract is often cheaper than PAYG these days even for relatively limited usage.

As for your comment implying he shouldn't live close to the centre of Leeds - I'm glad you're in a position where you could happily uproot and move for cheaper housing, but that is not a reasonable expectation of the majority of the population.

How about we look (not in this thread!) at some of the structural issues in society, and political choices, that are leading to life getting rapidly less affordable, rather than punching down at someone you don't even know who it seems just wants to work to support themselves and enjoy life a bit? That really shouldn't be too much to ask, should it.

Must say, I agree with your comments.
Back on topic, there is also the 51 (Doncaster to Norton) in South Yorkshire that will also be affected (Sunday's only). Gives an extra couple of days, prior to next potential services. I wonder if First will be asked to step in, given they operate the service through the rest of the week.

 

[Megafuss]

Are West Yorkshire contract services all Minimum Subsidy only?

 

[Saad]

Bit more of a speculative post, but here is what I think the different outcomes could be:

• 51 - remaining services likely taken over by First SY
• 30 - possibly taken by SquarePeg or GoAhead
• 61/61A - likely taken over by GoAhead, slight chance of Connexions taking it since they briefly ran it after CT Plus went under
• 116 - likely taken over by GoAhead, or a slim possibility of Arriva (though I heavily doubt that)
• 118 - remaining services likely taken over by Arriva
• 212 - likely taken over by GoAhead, especially given that they operate the 213 too
• 1 - would like to see this route stay but will probably be withdrawn (if it somehow does get saved I think Arriva would probably run it)

 

[mattb7tl]

This was quite a problematic company and stuff has been documented on the Travel West Yorkshire Forum. Tantrums, outbursts, and pure dodgy. This is also reflected by their google reviews. The worst example being when the company took a picture of a driver at Arriva, vulgarly insulted them, and put it on their main social media page.

Yorkshire Buses Leeds | Travel West Yorkshire Forum

So far in the fleet there is Optare Solo YG02 FWL which is ex Marshalls of Sutton and Wright Eclipse B7 SF06 HAX which is ex First Scotland.

travelwestyorks.proboards.com

Anyway, my stance on the company and closure. My view on this company is and was negative but respect was earned in what they were trying to do. Most indie bus operators play it safe, grab a council tender, and call it a day. These guys actually wanted to run a proper bus company. Commercial services, long operating hours, ambitious expansion, they were building something people could genuinely rely on, not just plugging gaps where the council would pay them to.

 

[KHCT]

This is why these far caps need upping significantly, the additional cost of trying to procure replacements for the likes of the 30 and 61 will once again be down to the tax payer. People can afford to pay more so they should, or walk. To give you an example, some joke of a man from Leeds recently wrote to the Metro paper that he couldn't afford the cost of living and was left with £9 after paying everything out. He was reliant on bail outs from his parents. After listing all his out goings, he listed Gym Membership fees (!), Mobile phone contract fees (what's wrong with pay as you go and cutting back on calls), the cost of an M Card even though he lived in a flat close to the city centre at £900 rent a month, and get this, the cost of his nights out each week! He worked as a barman by the way, more money than sense which I suspect is the same for many a person in the city who moans about the cost of living lol.

Surely if the fare cap goes up the amount paid by the government goes down accordingly so the amount the bus company gets is roughly the same?

Either way, your post is incredibly judgemental. Using your logic, we should remove bus passes from most pensioners because they can afford to pay, or take them away from disabled people who work full time? Why not remove rail subsidies because wealthy London commuters and people paying £100+ for a long distance journey can afford to pay the real cost of their journey?

The bigger issue here is surely an ever increasing cost base, not least the significant extra cost of employing staff thanks to Rachel Reeves' grand plan.

 

[BULLSAREMAGIC]

Surely if the fare cap goes up the amount paid by the government goes down accordingly so the amount the bus company gets is roughly the same?

Either way, your post is incredibly judgemental. Using your logic, we should remove bus passes from most pensioners because they can afford to pay, or take them away from disabled people who work full time? Why not remove rail subsidies because wealthy London commuters and people paying £100+ for a long distance journey can afford to pay the real cost of their journey?

The bigger issue here is surely an ever increasing cost base, not least the significant extra cost of employing staff thanks to Rachel Reeves' grand plan.

Im not sure that the chancellor can be held responsible for the decline of this operator. Surely the sudden increase in fuel costs with no guarantee as to when these will return to previous level coupled with a low margin of profit means the option would be to throw more money into fuel costs with no increased returns. Given the sudden demise I would think this the most likely final straw

 

[Andyh82]

The fact they were using a full sized coach on service 30 every day, a route where the number of passengers could fit in a car, shows to me that they were only just scraping by.

Their fleet was always changing as well. The sort of operator who buys a life expired vehicle, runs it until it packs in for good, and then does the same again, they’ve gone through dozens of buses despite only running a few services.

 

[Teapot42]

Im not sure that the chancellor can be held responsible for the decline of this operator. Surely the sudden increase in fuel costs with no guarantee as to when these will return to previous level coupled with a low margin of profit means the option would be to throw more money into fuel costs with no increased returns. Given the sudden demise I would think this the most likely final straw

It's not impossible they were in a situation similar to what finished off Hulleys, where a large bill (in that case insurance) was due and all efforts to find a way to pay it failed.

It's also a bit of a catch-22 - tell people in good time you are at risk and you guarantee the business will fail as any tendered services will be taken off you and passengers will seek alternatives they feel more reliable. It's quite hard to have an orderly shut-down of this sort of company as once one card is removed the whole lot comes crashing down.

 

[M60lad]

Out of interest considering that there are a number of operators in/around West Yorkshire that don't currently do service work could the likes of Leathers Travel pick up any of the work formally of Yorkshire Travel?

 

[Kaliwax]

A post from another forum

CANCELLED YORKSHIRE BUS SERVICE UPDATE:

Starting from Tuesday, the following services will be taken over:

- 212 by Go-Ahead
- 116 by First
- 61 by Connexions
- 30 by Lethers Travel

All of these are short-term emergency contracts until the next official service change date in July, at which point they will be retendered as part of the normal annual process.

Source: Councillor Paul Ray - Facebook


Glad to see these operators take this work on.

Also this will mean for a few months, you will see Go Ahead, Arriva, First, Stagecoach, Transdev all operate services into Wakefield

 

[Ballyheigue]

L53 Beeston to Woodkirk has been taken on by Kilvingtons and is using a former London E200.

 

[JD2168]

Travel South Yorkshire website says 51 Doncaster to Askern on Sunday will be run by Wilfreda Beehive

 

[Pit_buzzer]

That's a surprise, they've been bobbing in and out of local services ever since de regulation. I was expecting David Goodfellow to pick It up

 

[JD2168]

That's a surprise, they've been bobbing in and out of local services ever since de regulation. I was expecting David Goodfellow to pick It up

They do run the Mexborough Montagu to Doncaster Infirmary service using a sprinter along with a number of school services.

David Goodfellow Travel don’t currently run on Sunday’s so it might explain why they haven’t gone for it.

First probably didn’t go for it with the current strikes happening in Doncaster at the moment

 

[mayneway]

The fact they were using a full sized coach on service 30 every day, a route where the number of passengers could fit in a car, shows to me that they were only just scraping by.

Their fleet was always changing as well. The sort of operator who buys a life expired vehicle, runs it until it packs in for good, and then does the same again, they’ve gone through dozens of buses despite only running a few services.

Agree with you completely. Sorry to say but they come across like total cowboys playing at running a bus operation.
Don’t know much about the owners but I do know that the former owner of Viscount travel is involved so that sums it up perfectly!

 

[Pit_buzzer]

They do run the Mexborough Montagu to Doncaster Infirmary service using a sprinter along with a number of school services.

David Goodfellow Travel don’t currently run on Sunday’s so it might explain why they haven’t gone for it.

First probably didn’t go for it with the current strikes happening in Doncaster at the moment

Yep, I knew about the schools and hospital contracts, I was thinking more about their forays into regular service work.
Good point about Goodfellow not doing Sundays and the 51 actually passing wilfredas depot should have given me a clue

 

[M60lad]

With First operating 116 will this be the first time they have operated into deepish Arriva Territory and before anyone mentions it I know they've operated 268 in the past but is this the first time they've operated into Wakefield?

Also with Go Ahead getting 212 will anything have to be transferred from East Yorkshire to operate the service?

 

[Ballyheigue]

With First operating 116 will this be the first time they have operated into deepish Arriva Territory and before anyone mentions it I know they've operated 268 in the past but is this the first time they've operated into Wakefield?

Also with Go Ahead getting 212 will anything have to be transferred from East Yorkshire to operate the service?

From Leeds into Wakefield yes it is the first time, but they have operated the 232 from Huddersfield to Wakefield using Hunslet based vehicles early mornings, and ran the 232 using Huddersfield based vehicles evenings and Sunday's. I didn't know they ran evening/Sunday journeys on the 268 however, I thought it was the 229? It's the first time they've ever served Shaw Cross and Ossett though.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

With First operating 116 will this be the first time they have operated into deepish Arriva Territory and before anyone mentions it I know they've operated 268 in the past but is this the first time they've operated into Wakefield?

Also with Go Ahead getting 212 will anything have to be transferred from East Yorkshire to operate the service?

The former Yorkshire Rider Wakefield depot in Kinsley just made it into First days IIRC, operating Wakefield to Doncaster. I can't recall if the extension of Leeds route 87 to Wakefield was still operating when First took ownership- possibly not.

From Leeds into Wakefield yes it is the first time, but they have operated the 232 from Huddersfield to Wakefield using Hunslet based vehicles early mornings, and ran the 232 using Huddersfield based vehicles evenings and Sunday's. I didn't know they ran evening/Sunday journeys on the 268 however, I thought it was the 229? It's the first time they've ever served Shaw Cross and Ossett though.

They had a daytime board on the 268 until c.1999/2000.