The story
In April 1974, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive was formed, with the municipal fleets of Bradford, Calderdale, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds combined. Services were branded under the MetroBus brand, with a cream and verona green livery adopted.
To comply with the Transport Act 1985, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive formed an arms length company named Yorkshire Rider in September 1986. West Yorkshire PTE's 'Metrobus' services were transferred to Yorkshire Rider upon the deregulation of West Yorkshire bus services on 26 October 1986.
On 21 October 1988, Yorkshire Rider was privatised for £20 million (equivalent to £59,737,000 in 2025), with 51% of shares in the company being sold by West Yorkshire PTE to a team of eight managers in a management buyout and the remaining 49% sold to Yorkshire Rider's 3,500 employees in an Employee Share Ownership Plan, the largest ESOP arrangement in the United Kingdom at the time.
In August 1989, Yorkshire Rider purchased the West Yorkshire Road Car Company, a former National Bus Company subsidiary who operated services in Bradford, Leeds and Otley, from AJS Holdings. The 'West Yorkshire' trading name was retained by Yorkshire Rider for nearly a year following the takeover, after which it was removed in a restructuring of former WYRCC operations.
FirstGroup ownership
On 15 April 1994, Yorkshire Rider was purchased by the Badgerline Group for £38 million (equivalent to £80,179,000 in 2025). Badgerline and its subsidiaries were later merged with the GRT Group in April 1995 to form the FirstGroup.
In September 1995, Yorkshire Rider was split into four separate divisions: Bradford Traveller, Calderline, Kingfisher Huddersfield and Leeds City Link. However in February 1998, all these were respectively renamed First Bradford, First Calderdale, First Huddersfield and First Leeds as part of the rollout of a unified FirstBus brand.
During the early 2000s, several regional divisions were merged. First Quickstep were based at the same Kirkstall Road depot as First Leeds but as a separate entity running several services around the Leeds area until it was merged into First Leeds' operation, while First Calderdale and First Huddersfield merged in 2003 to form First Calderdale & Huddersfield.
In July 2005, First Leeds purchased Morley-based Black Prince Buses. The family-run independent's last buses left service on 31 July, with First taking on most of Black Prince's services from 1 August.
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On 18 May 2008, the company's Kirkstall Road depot, first opened in 1897 as a Leeds Corporation Tramways depot and tramcar workshop, was closed after 111 years of service. Staff and operations were subsequently moved to a new depot at Hunslet, situated next door to the site of another former tram depot. Named Hunslet Park, the new depot was opened with a capacity of 200 buses with room for additional expansion.
In 2009, the management of the three FirstGroup sub-divisions in West Yorkshire, as well as First York were centralised, creating First West Yorkshire.
First's Todmorden outstation was partially demolished in 2015, converting the site into an open-air yard housing 24 vehicles.
The operations of First West Yorkshire and First York are to be remerged into a First North and West Yorkshire business unit on 1 October 2022, with current Managing Director Paul Matthews temporarily overseeing operations of the new business unit until a new Managing Director can be recruited. This is part of major changes to the FirstGroup's senior management, which will see the merger of First's ten regional bus operations across the United Kingdom into six business units.
From Wikipedia’s article on First West Yorkshire, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3