Leeds-Bridlington direct buses?

[mm333]

I was at Bradford Interchange looking at the Coastliner printed timetables. You can get from Leeds to Scarborough and Leeds to Whitby, but has Leeds ever had a direct bus service to Bridlington?

 

[crimple]

Yes until about 2 years ago.It was service no.845

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Yes until about 12 to 18 months ago. It was service no.845

It has had two via different routes.

The Yorkshire Coastliner 845 ran from Leeds to York then Malton (following the 843 route) before heading across from Staxton to Filey and Brid

However, until c.1989, the 744/746 (previously 44/46) were jointly operated by East Yorkshire and West Yorkshire Road Car from Leeds to York to Pocklington where they diverged heading to Beverley and Hull (746) and Driffield and Bridlington (744)

Illustrated by this photo https://www.flickr.com/photos/96859...5-23VuENi-Aq7wQv-2iM88EJ-Bx9bsq-BxgrdH-eoqmMA courtesy of The KDH Archive

 

[Andyh82]

Yes until about 2 years ago.It was service no.845

I think Covid has affected the passage of time there, it was 2018 I believe

There was certainly at least one proper season before COVID where there was no 845

 

[leedslad82]

Didn't they try one the other year that did Leeds to Scarborough then went down coast to Filey and Bridlington?

 

[BoroAndy]

Yes seemed to only last one year, X45 I believe, express stops only Leeds to Scarborough, then competing with 12 and 13 to Bridlington and 555 as far as Filey. Bad idea that was Doomed.

 

[richard13]

I have found some timetable books:

1970s - base service group of 43/44/45/46 jointly run by East Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.
43 hourly Leeds-York-Malton-Scarborough
44 2 hourly Leeds-York-Pocklington-Driffield-Bridlington
46 2 hourly Leeds-York-Pocklington-Hull
45 2 journeys each way a day of the 44 service running direct from York to Driffield missing Pocklington.
Thus every 30 mins Leeds-York, hourly York-Scarborough and York-Pocklington and 2 hourly Pocklington-Hull/Bridlington.
The actual timetable wasn't quite that simple, plus local services. 43 was exclusively West Yorkshire and the 45 exclusively East Yorkshire.
West Yorkshire used Bristol REs, but normally inter-urban geared versions for higher top speed - urban geared versions were sometimes allocated and they really struggled to keep time. East Yorkshire used mostly Leyland Leopards or in winter the coach fleet, which were fast and then wait time.

Before deregualtion in 1986 - 43 became 843, 44/46 became 744/746 and the 45 disappeared with all as 744.

On deregulation the joint workings stopped, but connections still advertised, with West Yorkshire retaining the 843 and all the Leeds-York section. East Yorkshire ran everything from York to Pocklington and on to Bridlington and Hull as 744/746. These were later renumbered X44/X46 and the short workings from 94 to 44/46. The X44 York-Pocklington-Bridlington has now ceased completely.

By 1995 Yorkshire Coastliner had introduced the 845/X45 variant as Leeds-York-Malton-Bridlington running twice each way a day with the X45 as an express version for the first from Leeds and last from Bridlington. It seems to have been changed many times with some journeys only being Malton-Bridlington connections and sometimes extras.

There was also an 841/850 Keighley - York - Bridlington - Scarborough from Keighley and District on Summer Wednesdays and Saturdays. National Express offered a Scarborough - Bridlington - York - Leeds service twice a day with local fares. There have also been Leeds - Bridlington Summer Saturday coach services which have sometimes had stops at Malton or Tadcaster to make them bus services.

Leeds - York- Bridlington seems to be a route that ought to work, used to work, but struggles and so comes and goes.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

On deregulation the joint workings stopped, but connections still advertised, with West Yorkshire retaining the 843 and all the Leeds-York section. East Yorkshire ran everything from York to Pocklington and on to Bridlington and Hull as 744/746. These were later renumbered X44/X46 and the short workings from 94 to 44/46. The X44 York-Pocklington-Bridlington has now ceased completely.

I thought the 744/746 was still jointly worked until 1989. I remember travelling to Hull in 1987 (on an EYMS vehicle) but fairly sure we passed a West Yorkshire Coastliner Olympian near Beverley working a 746 back towards York.

This photo from Flickr from my acquaintance John Carter shows a West Yorkshire Olympian in 1988 in Pocklington.

1988-04-05 C480 YWY Leyland Olympian-ECW 1858 of West Yorkshire, Pocklington

Explore John Carter 1962's 79561 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[richard13]

I thought the 744/746 was still jointly worked until 1989. I remember travelling to Hull in 1987 (on an EYMS vehicle) but fairly sure we passed a West Yorkshire Coastliner Olympian near Beverley working a 746 back towards York.

This photo from Flickr from my acquaintance John Carter shows a West Yorkshire Olympian in 1988 in Pocklington.

1988-04-05 C480 YWY Leyland Olympian-ECW 1858 of West Yorkshire, Pocklington

Explore John Carter 1962's 79561 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

I am sorry I don't have precise details - My parents lived at Pocklington from 1970 to 1988 and it is what I remember from visits plus timetables for 1975, 85 and 95 and some random others. The joint working happened but was rarely mentioned in the publicity (East Yorkshire's) or only as a small print general header. The history of deregulation in that area and the formation of Coastliner is something I didn't see or record. The Humberside timetable for 1990 lists a variety of contract coaches companies running odd journeys and Sundays, which all soon faded.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I am sorry I don't have precise details - My parents lived at Pocklington from 1970 to 1988 and it is what I remember from visits plus timetables for 1975, 85 and 95 and some random others. The joint working happened but was rarely mentioned in the publicity (East Yorkshire's) or only as a small print general header. The history of deregulation in that area and the formation of Coastliner is something I didn't see or record. The Humberside timetable for 1990 lists a variety of contract coaches companies running odd journeys and Sundays, which all soon faded.

No worries. You're right that Leeds to Scarborough was always West Yorkshire - vehicles being drawn from Leeds, York, Malton and Scarborough depots (think they even outbased a couple in the United depot in the 1970s).

I think the joint operation on the 744/6 last until 1988/9; at that time, West Yorkshire had been bought by AJS Group and they were busy slicing and dicing the firm up so think it was about then. Tend to think you're right about the timetables - individual journeys weren't shown being operated by EY or WY but just a general header. The split was also fairly sensible as the 744/746 were three hours long - too long for a driver to do in a round trip but truncating them at York made that doable. That said, most were done by Pocklington anyway.

I imagine the 1990 timetable might have had some odd tenders from Reynard Pullman or Thornes? It was definitely a state of flux in the York area at that time

 

[richard13]

I imagine the 1990 timetable might have had some odd tenders from Reynard Pullman or Thornes? It was definitely a state of flux in the York area at that time

The leaflet is Humberside County Council for 23 April 1990 - Hull and Bridlington to York and Leeds
Leeds - York is York City and District 843 every 30 mins as connection to:
York - Hull and York - Bridlington as East Yorkshire 744/746 about every 2 hours, but less regular than before.
746: York - Pocklington evenings was with Premier Coaches of Dunnington and Beverley - Hull evenings with Hull City Transport
Sunday 744 from Driffield (connection off 121) to York was with Lawrence Coaches of Carlton, Goole

Part of summer excursion routes are also given as:
Bridlington Coach Park was served by Rotherham Travel 250 Daily and West Riding 902 on Sunday with random village stops.
Also Keighley and District 841 serving villages from York to Scarborough via Bridlington over the Summer - Daily in the peak.

Pocklington area leaflets give operators as, Bailey's Bus Service of Fulford, York, Cherry Coaches of Anlaby, Gorwood Coaches of East Cottingwith, Premier Coaches of Dunnington, Renyard Travel of Tadcaster and Reynard Pullman of York, Thornes of Bubwith, Selby and District of Selby, Target Travel of Gate Helmsley, York.
Very much a time of flux in the area for operators, but much of the core routes remain adapted to housing developments.