Reliance Motor Services

[YorkRailFan]

Reliance Buses of North Yorkshire has announced Sunday buses between York and Easingwold from December:

SUNDAY BUSES

We are pleased to announce Sunday buses are making a comeback between #York and #Easingwold from 8th December 2024.

️ Times will be very similar to the previous timetable, with slight changes for reliability improvements.

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Some fantastic news, hoping for some extra evening services on Fridays and Saturdays too though. Sounds like it will be the 30/30X and 40 operating as usual, but I have doubts the Reliance operated 31X will operate as it only has 1 return journey between York and Easingwold (continues to Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside) on Monday-Saturdays.

This means Reliance will operate year round Sunday services, as they currently only operate DalesBus and Moorsbus services on Summer Sundays, with no buses operating on their network on Sundays in the Winter over the past few years.

Easingwold is one of the bigger settlements outside of York with no current Sunday bus service, and with these buses additionally serving villages on the A19 corridor, what's not to love?

 

[YorkRailFan]

Timetables for the Sunday services have been uploaded to Bustimes. As I suspected, there will be no Sunday service on the 31X. A bi-hourly service will operate on both the 30 and 40, unsurprisingly, these services won't extend to Thirsk or Crayke respectively. The 30X won't operate on Sundays, meaning all services on Sundays on the 30 will serve Tollerton and Alne.

30: https://bustimes.org/services/30-yo...on-shipton-tollert?date=2024-12-08&service=30

40: https://bustimes.org/services/40-yorkcolleges-easingwoldcrayke-via-york-hospital?date=2024-12-08

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Reliance Buses of North Yorkshire has announced Sunday buses between York and Easingwold from December:

x.com

x.com

Some fantastic news, hoping for some extra evening services on Fridays and Saturdays too though. Sounds like it will be the 30/30X and 40 operating as usual, but I have doubts the Reliance operated 31X will operate as it only has 1 return journey between York and Easingwold (continues to Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside) on Monday-Saturdays.

This means Reliance will operate year round Sunday services, as they currently only operate DalesBus and Moorsbus services on Summer Sundays, with no buses operating on their network on Sundays in the Winter over the past few years.

Easingwold is one of the bigger settlements outside of York with no current Sunday bus service, and with these buses additionally serving villages on the A19 corridor, what's not to love?

Well, I am concerned that we're seeing a return to the days of c.2001 when North Yorkshire County Council (as it was) spent lots of government money on all sorts of bus services that were never sustainable and ultimately was wasted.

 

[stevieinselby]

Reliance Buses of North Yorkshire has announced Sunday buses between York and Easingwold from December:

x.com

x.com

Some fantastic news, hoping for some extra evening services on Fridays and Saturdays too though. Sounds like it will be the 30/30X and 40 operating as usual, but I have doubts the Reliance operated 31X will operate as it only has 1 return journey between York and Easingwold (continues to Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside) on Monday-Saturdays.

This means Reliance will operate year round Sunday services, as they currently only operate DalesBus and Moorsbus services on Summer Sundays, with no buses operating on their network on Sundays in the Winter over the past few years.

Easingwold is one of the bigger settlements outside of York with no current Sunday bus service, and with these buses additionally serving villages on the A19 corridor, what's not to love?

Reliance had been running Sunday services commercially on the 30 and the 40 for at least 15 years up to November 2023 – it is literally only for the last year that they have had no buses on the road on winter Sundays. The new timetables launching next month are essentially reinstating those long-standing services to the same pattern but with some minor tweaks for reliability and running times, thanks to BSIP funding. Let's hope that it continues when that initial funding runs out, whether that's commercially or with further financial support.

Sunday services to Helmsley have always been sketchy-to-non-existent, so with the 31X currently seeing such a poor timetable Monday to Saturday I don't think there's any prospect of a year-round Sunday service on that route.
Up to 2013, and then again since 2023, there has been one bus a day from York to Helmsley and back on summer Sundays as part of the Moorsbus network.
For a few years between 2013 and 2017, Stephensons ran 2 or 3 buses each way on bank holiday Mondays, but Sundays saw nothing beyond Easingwold (and even then, it was a very limited offering on summer Sundays only for just a couple of years).
If you want to go even further back, there was a service C12 that ran on Sundays only between York and Helmsley (via B1363, not serving Easingwold), but that stopped in about 2006.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Well, I am concerned that we're seeing a return to the days of c.2001 when North Yorkshire County Council (as it was) spent lots of government money on all sorts of bus services that were never sustainable and ultimately was wasted.

Easingwold is one of the larger towns outside of York, it definitely deserves a Sunday bus service as its otherwise completely isolated. Yes places like Ripon don't have Sunday services to York (apart from DalesBus 822, which has no return journey on a Sunday for those in Ripon going to York) but it has buses to Harrogate and Leeds.

Up to 2013, and then again since 2023, there has been one bus a day from York to Helmsley and back on summer Sundays as part of the Moorsbus network

Yes, I had a couple trips on the Moorsbus this year up to Helmsley, numbered M31 which is rather fitting.

Reliance had been running Sunday services commercially on the 30 and the 40 for at least 15 years up to November 2023 – it is literally only for the last year that they have had no buses on the road on winter Sundays

Any idea why they ended? Were they just commercially unviable?

 

[stevieinselby]

Easingwold is one of the larger towns outside of York, it definitely deserves a Sunday bus service as its otherwise completely isolated. Yes places like Ripon don't have Sunday services to York (apart from DalesBus 822, which has no return journey on a Sunday for those in Ripon going to York) but it has buses to Harrogate and Leeds.

Like the M31, the 822 is purely about getting people from York to Ripon and the Dales. With the only bus from Ripon to York departing at 5pm and arriving at 6pm, it's only there to bring people home after their day out, and not the start of a journey.

Any idea why they ended? Were they just commercially unviable?

Yes, in a nutshell. I don't know if the £2 scheme hurt them financially or if it was just a case of costs increasing, but they weren't making money on them any more and couldn't see any likelihood of the services returning to profitability quickly enough.

 

[dodecahedron67]

Similar to the late night services introduced on the 30/40 a couple years back, the most recent drivers who did the Sunday services simply left reliance, which is why the Sunday services and late night ones finished at roughly the same time, as it was mostly the same drivers on them.

The older drivers who used to do the Sunday services years ago either retired or didn’t want to work Sundays anymore, and Reliance is a very close knit business - the Sunday services didn’t make money at the end, they were ran off the goodwill of those few drivers who are now at other companies…

 

[YorkRailFan]

Similar to the late night services introduced on the 30/40 a couple years back, the most recent drivers who did the Sunday services simply left reliance, which is why the Sunday services and late night ones finished at roughly the same time, as it was mostly the same drivers on them.

I notice that EYMS runs late night services on certain routes (like the 747 and 18), but these services only run on Fridays and Saturdays. Could this be a potential way forward for a return of later buses to Easingwold? The last bus to Easingwold from York being at around 18:15, isn't great for those who want a night out in York, of which there are many.

Like the M31, the 822 is purely about getting people from York to Ripon and the Dales. With the only bus from Ripon to York departing at 5pm and arriving at 6pm, it's only there to bring people home after their day out, and not the start of a journey.

Yes, I used that service quite a bit this year, it also shuttled between Ripon and Grassington/Fountains Abbey this year.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Reliance had been running Sunday services commercially on the 30 and the 40 for at least 15 years up to November 2023 – it is literally only for the last year that they have had no buses on the road on winter Sundays. The new timetables launching next month are essentially reinstating those long-standing services to the same pattern but with some minor tweaks for reliability and running times, thanks to BSIP funding. Let's hope that it continues when that initial funding runs out, whether that's commercially or with further financial support.

Apologies - I'd forgotten that the 40 also had a Sunday service

Sunday services to Helmsley have always been sketchy-to-non-existent, so with the 31X currently seeing such a poor timetable Monday to Saturday I don't think there's any prospect of a year-round Sunday service on that route.
Up to 2013, and then again since 2023, there has been one bus a day from York to Helmsley and back on summer Sundays as part of the Moorsbus network.
For a few years between 2013 and 2017, Stephensons ran 2 or 3 buses each way on bank holiday Mondays, but Sundays saw nothing beyond Easingwold (and even then, it was a very limited offering on summer Sundays only for just a couple of years).
If you want to go even further back, there was a service C12 that ran on Sundays only between York and Helmsley (via B1363, not serving Easingwold), but that stopped in about 2006.

The York to Helmsley route was always very thin, even on weekdays. The C12 was possibly one of those 2001+ services that NYCC paid for, a bit like when Richmond to Barnard Castle got a Sunday service.

IIRC, Sunday services to Helmsley have traditionally been confined to the 128 (with the exception of Moorsbus services). Up to deregulation, there were some Ripon to Helmsley services, and for some bizarre reason, a single return journey survived until c.1990!

Easingwold is one of the larger towns outside of York, it definitely deserves a Sunday bus service as its otherwise completely isolated. Yes places like Ripon don't have Sunday services to York (apart from DalesBus 822, which has no return journey on a Sunday for those in Ripon going to York) but it has buses to Harrogate and Leeds.

As I said above, I'd forgotten about the 40 having had a Sunday service. I think a one vehicle duty on the 30 would be potentially sustainable.

Given that the Ripon to York corridor has struggled to retain ANY service in recent years, I think Sunday services aren't likely there

 

[stevieinselby]

The York to Helmsley route was always very thin, even on weekdays. The C12 was possibly one of those 2001+ services that NYCC paid for, a bit like when Richmond to Barnard Castle got a Sunday service.

IIRC, Sunday services to Helmsley have traditionally been confined to the 128 (with the exception of Moorsbus services).

The C12 was funded through the Rural Bus Grant (I'm not sure to what extent that went through NYCC).

Yes, and up until this year (for at least the last 25 years) Helmsley had only had a summer Sunday service, with the 128 running a reduced service between Scarborough and Pickering only in the winter – but, again with BSIP funding, the full service is now running through the winter for the first time.

Given that the Ripon to York corridor has struggled to retain ANY service in recent years, I think Sunday services aren't likely there

I do wonder if a properly marketed service running 3 times a day on the 822 route from York to Ripon and Fountains Abbey could be made to work on Sundays all year round. By missing out the smaller villages off the main road, you can save a good 10 minutes and more importantly lose the impression of a bus that is meandering round every gatepost and garden shed, which might attract more of the leisure market.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The C12 was funded through the Rural Bus Grant (I'm not sure to what extent that went through NYCC).

Yes, and up until this year (for at least the last 25 years) Helmsley had only had a summer Sunday service, with the 128 running a reduced service between Scarborough and Pickering only in the winter – but, again with BSIP funding, the full service is now running through the winter for the first time.


I do wonder if a properly marketed service running 3 times a day on the 822 route from York to Ripon and Fountains Abbey could be made to work on Sundays all year round. By missing out the smaller villages off the main road, you can save a good 10 minutes and more importantly lose the impression of a bus that is meandering round every gatepost and garden shed, which might attract more of the leisure market.

Rural Bus Grant was provided to and spent by the local authorities. In North Yorkshire, it resulted in some very positive moves that have endured. For instance, the service from Leyburn to Ripon via Masham had a single round trip on a Thursday/Saturday plus a few other randoms near Leyburn on a Friday. It also resulted in a single round trip from Richmond to Northallerton though.

Whilst Ripon and Fountains are lovely, I don't know how much of a year round demand there would be (though I'd recommend the latter around this time of year - last of the autumn colours and the run up to Christmas).

Also casting back into the mists of time, I'm not certain that the Thirsk to Easingwold section has been as well served ever.

 

[stevieinselby]

Also casting back into the mists of time, I'm not certain that the Thirsk to Easingwold section has been as well served ever.

Throughout the 2000s, there were just 3–4 journeys a day run by John Smith's on the 58, initially using coaches, then a Mercedes Vario, then a Plaxton Primo. I don't know what it was like before that, but looking at some vintage timetables in the 70s there was about a 2–3 hourly service.

After Reliance extended the 30 to Thirsk in 2010, John Smith's only held on for a couple more years before bailing. The Reliance offer has been pretty steady for the last 14 years, with about 8 journeys a day giving a roughly hourly service from Thirsk throughout that time.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Throughout the 2000s, there were just 3–4 journeys a day run by John Smith's on the 58, initially using coaches, then a Mercedes Vario, then a Plaxton Primo. I don't know what it was like before that, but looking at some vintage timetables in the 70s there was about a 2–3 hourly service.

After Reliance extended the 30 to Thirsk in 2010, John Smith's only held on for a couple more years before bailing. The Reliance offer has been pretty steady for the last 14 years, with about 8 journeys a day giving a roughly hourly service from Thirsk throughout that time.

I can just remember the service before deregulation - think it was West Yorkshire with B series Nationals - and think it was about 7/8 journeys a day but a less regular headway, as you say. I also remember that Plaxton Primo of Smith's - not good.

 

[SCH117X]

The 1956 West Yorkshire timetable on Timetable World https://timetableworld.com/ttw-viewer.php?token=1567472c-4332-4a65-88e8-53d23d8231e1 has a hourly service 80 on Saturdays between York and Thirsk from 0810 to 2010 plus a 2130. From Thirsk 0920 and hourly to 2130 plus a 2240.
Weekdays it was from York 0810, 0910 and then every 2 hours to 1510, 1610, 1730, 2010. From Thirsk 0920, 1020 and every 2 hours to 1620, 1720,1920,2120
Sundays it was 1110 and every 2 hours to 1910 from York and 1220 and every 2 hours to Thirsk.
There were also short workings from York to Easingwold 0720 Mon-Sat (returning at 0800), 1210 Thursdays contunuing to Raskelf (returning at 1345/1351) , 1810 Mon-Fri (returning 1848) and 2210 Mon-Sat.