The saverstrip lasted well into the deregulation era, I remember them (and the machines which ate your entire strip if you weren’t careful) and I didn’t move to the UK until 1988.
They lasted a few years into that era, but much longer on trains than buses.
I also don’t recall dwell times being particularly long because Yorkshire Rider operated an exact fare policy with the fare hoppers.
I don't know if they did that on some routes, but they didn't have them in Bradford or Calderdale on the routes I used.
The old West Yorkshire Road Car services noticeably declined once Yorkshire Rider had acquired them in the early 90s, though. Depending on where you lived in Leeds that may be what you remember, there was a lot of consolidation of routes in north/west Leeds after the acquisition which resulted in fewer buses to places like Yeadon and Guiseley.
Indeed. Bradford-Guiseley has gone from 8 an hour pre-deregulation to 1. Leeds to Guiseley has dropped a lot, but not by that percentage. The 33 and 34 have been cut by a third from Leeds, to Otley by a third and to Ilkley by 100%. The 733/4 have disappeared completely as have the services from Bradford to Ilkley and Otley/Harrogate from Bradford via Guiseley.
And then along came Badgerline and then First. Originally an improvement- the the Overground and the FirstCard (with the BusMiles rewards scheme) off-bus payment cards were genuinely revolutionary- obviously everything started to decline once Moir Lockhead properly got going.
There were some improvements, with my local services being better spaced out, if not actually improved in frequency, but there seems to have been no improvements other then taking cards in the last 20 years (excluding schemes paid for by Metro).
The only places that seemed to get better frequencies where those where they were fighting off competition. As soon as the competition went, so did the frequencies.
When there was competition to Sowerby, First managed a direct bus every 10 minutes and 2 slower ones an hour, as well as 5 an hour from the competition.
Now there's 2 an hour from First and 1 subsided with early and late services slashed, having dropped quickly to just 4 an hour and then continuing to cut.
In the 80s there was a bus every 5 minutes from Halifax to Sowerby Bridge on various routes, but all coordinated, half that in the evening.
Now, typically, in the evening there's 2 an hour, but not half an hour apart.
Can’t remember how far you could travel for that.
