Leeds Buses

30/01/2026

Have you been on a bus with our happiest and cheery bus driver?

21/12/2025

We are fast approaching Christmas!

📅 Most buses will operate a Saturday or Sunday service between Christmas and New Year.

🚍 Black Prince will be running a FREE service on Christmas Day between Morley and St. James's Hospital (Donations are welcome to continue running this wonderful tradition)

🅿️ Park and Ride into town from Elland Road or Stourton and save the city centre chaos!

🎄🎁 And of course, have a very Merry Christmas and here's to a fantastic 2026!! 🎁 🎄

https://www.wymetro.com/

01/12/2025

We've been made aware of a TikTok account using our name.

Please note that it isn't us, or has any affiliation with our page.

You'll only find us on Instagram and Facebook. Thank you.

07/11/2025

02/11/2025

Renowned for excellent quality

The drawings are pretty good too!

New to Burnley & Pendle in August 2001, 1069 as it was numbered when new was part of a large fleet of Volvo B10BLEs with Wright Renown body a type which would a very popular type with Blazefield and latterly Transdev fleets when Transdev bought Blazefield.

The bus initially appeared in the Burnley & Pendle livery for the Mainline services. When nearly new it appeared at a bus rally in Blackpool sometime in 2002 whilst parked alongside a few of Blazefield's other buses. Later in the Transdev era 1069 lost its Mainline branding.

A few years later around the year 2010 did 1069 benefit from a refurb and was painted into the new Mainline colours. The bus had new red seating and interior panels plus a new floor whilst on the outside the bus gained a facelifted front end with smaller rounded lights and the same for the rear end too which meant a whole new panel at the back which covered the rear. A large number of similar vehicles followed suit including some Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs which were about the same age as these Wright Renowns. The buses were joined by brand new Volvo B7RLEs featuring early Wright Eclipse 2 bodies when they were new in late-2008 as these were also painted in the new two-tone red Mainline livery.

In 2017 the bus was ultimately retired from Transdev and was bought by the oddly named Leeds based independent SquarePeg who today run a large fleet of Enviro200s with classic style body purchased from a few sources in a variety of different lengths whilst working alongside Enviro200 MMCs which were again bought in different lengths with most bought brand new and the longest ones new to National Express: West Midlands and latterly with Xplore Dundee. The most different bus there is an MCV Evolution bodied Enviro200 dating back to circa 2008.

Back in 2017 did SquarePeg work a more mixed fleet of buses and these Wright Renowns were bought for the takeover of First's 9 service but only between White Rose Centre and Seacroft as First continued to work the White Rose Centre - Pudsey stretch, however these days route 9 is now once again an orbital service with the 9C which simply is a reverse version of the actual 9 as we know today.

A few ex-Transdev Wright Renowns worked with SquarePeg with one never gaining the green and red lining and seemed to bear a lighter cream to the rest of the fleet. The buses were still tidy despite the refreshed interior nearing a decade old already. The vehicles were also mechanically sound even after all this time in service and on the first day of using the service the drivers were all very friendly despite having ended up on the 3pm run on the 9 when the route stopped off at Garforth Academy.

However, about the year 2020 did Y169 HRN's time come to an end with SquarePeg and it would eventually work with Angies Tours whilst still in her previous owners colours and would continue working for another two years through the pandemic but primarily on rail replacement services. Meanwhile there's been no record of this bus' movements since 2022 meaning it could just have been retired altogether and presumably scrapped which is a huge shame although some Wright Renowns have been saved since with some possibly still in service in places although if so numbers are very, very low now as Euro 2 engined buses would not be permitted in some areas like with some L*Z or UL*Z zones.

Finally just a small question, does anyone know who came up with the name for this operator? Like Quickstep, Black Prince, or Yorkshire Buses you could understand or at least sort of but I suppose the only thing that relates to the name is the font of the logo which is Square721 DM. I'm actually curious to find out.

25/10/2025

Striding for another throwback 😁

Following on from yesterday's upload of K617 HUG, sister vehicle K601 HUG (no.8601) was also new to Yorkshire Rider in April 1993 and was one of the large fleet of Alexander Striders and looking at this livery which they wore since new I think its clear which livery they suited more in their entire career. They were painted in the very attractive Yorkshire Rider green/cream/red livery when new and were working from Bramley Depot in Leeds but a select few of these Scanias initially found life at Skircoat Road depot in Halifax for a very short time before settling in at Bramley, no.8601 was one of those buses as that with the other few Scanias were filling in at Halifax for Volvo B10Bs again featuring the Alexander Strider body.

No.8601 spent most of her life at Bramley right until the First Bus era and it was soon painted up in First's Leeds City Link white/yellow/orange/red livery although the bus seemed to transfer to Kirkstall during its time in the Leeds City Link colours. The bus also featured 'Turn up and Go' stickers on either side of the destination box at the front with Overground branding over the front wheel arches. Some time soon after was the bus renumbered as 61079 under First's national renumbering scheme.

Its not known if the bus was painted in the Barbie 2 livery like many of 61079's siblings but it did wear the Barbie livery as from the mid to late 2000s and later sported an LED destination display in favour of its old flip dot display. In 2009 was the bus withdrawn and was ultimately retired from service however on 19/7/2009 was the bus showing off its recent repaint into the old Yorkshire Rider colours as the bus was then preserved, the bus was shown at Elland Road stadium for the Leeds Bus Rally. Sadly I never got the chance to go as I was over a thousand miles away in Austria enduring frequent thunderstorms whilst the UK basks in frequent spells of rain and the running day in Leeds was no exception!

So yes I was wanting to see this bus in person at the event but as luck would have it I spotted the bus whilst coming home from Harrogate one day along Dewsbury Road on a Friday, turns out the bus was route learning for a feeder service between Leeds and Dewsbury on 13/3/2016 which I didn't attend however the route would pass through my street so in total I saw it a total of three times, once going down and the route back I had my camera ready to film it powering up my street. That video can be found on YouTube right here > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJNZsZDQ_LM

Had some great memories on this type, huge regulars on my 68 and 46 service as I strongly remember the engine sound coupled with the Voith gearbox and the rattles whilst in idle. Whilst school was hard, its fair to say that one thing I enjoyed about going to primary school was always looking out for what bus would turn up on my 68 and 46 when there was no Bus Times back then and so much variety at depots which these days feels very standardised with one dominant type and in this case the StreetDecks which don't seem as reliable as the mostly rock solid fleet back then plus they lack an underpowered engine which to me sounds reminiscent of a 90s midi/minibus. And as I've said yesterday its such a shame no models exist of any Alexander Strider bodied buses as I remember vividly that I once had a dream of a very realistic model of an Alexander Strider in Yorkshire Rider livery which I was pushing along on the dining table when I was still a child. No promises but I am going to attempt to scratch build one at some point in this livery and see how it goes!

Route 50 is a route that links Horsforth to Seacroft and remains relatively unchanged since the Rider era as the route has seen a lot of interesting types including Alexander Royale bodied Volvo Olympians, ALX400 bodied Volvo B7TLs to name a few in the earlier First Group years but today the route is still going strong with the main vehicle of choice being Wright StreetDeck diesels and electrics.

24/10/2025

Strider anyone?

New in April 1993 to Yorkshire Rider,as no.8617, 8617 was part of a large batch of Alexander Striders which the bodywork was part developed by Yorkshire Rider (hence the name Strider, a body type which would be quite popular across North/West Yorkshire by a few big operators in the area).

8617 was initially painted into the very smart green/cream/red Yorkshire Rider livery for its time and was allocated to Leeds as per the rest of the Alexander Strider bodied Scania N113s whereas the Volvos were based at Halifax/Huddersfield where some of the earlier Scanias of the K-HUG batch were when brand new and the smaller batch of Scania L113s were based at York.

Like with the rest of this batch was 8617 painted in the First Bus Leeds City Link livery shortly after First's purchase of Badgerline who bought Yorkshire Rider not too long before, talk about eaten by a bigger fish there!

The bus would be stationed at Bramley it seemed at least from around this time although could have spent its time there since new. Although later was the bus renumbered as 61095 under First's renumbering scheme.

In the early 2000s was 61095 repainted in the Barbie 2 livery whilst during this time did the bus have a short stint at York whilst at one point working the Park & Ride service 3 looking very out of place among a fleet of low floor rigid and articulated Wright Eclipse Volvos. This wasn't the first time an Alexander Strider would be working here as remember as I said earlier that Rider York (part of the Rider Group) worked the Scania L113s which they ended up in Leeds in later life to work the Superbus services after being refurbished. Also the bus sported silver painted wheels which was rare to see on buses of this type, later would the wheels be painted in purple, although the silver wheels would foreshadow a time when First would ditch the purple wheels altogether on future Barbie liveried buses when bought new.

In the mid 2000s 61095 had her front flip dot destination display replaced with an LED one before having her final repaint which would be in the Barbie 3 livery as seen in the drawing as First wanted this style livery to not be worn by only their newer and low floor buses.

Unfortunately 61095 would be withdrawn in 2009 and would be one of the many buses of this batch to be scrapped apart from three survivors, as two have gone off radar which both had been bought for preservation and one for promotional purposes whilst 8601 the first one surviving well into preservation and is now under the ownership of White Rose Bus Group who also own another bus with Alexander Strider body which is West Riding no.412 which is a Volvo B10B. In the end these buses made way for a then brand new fleet of Wright bodied Volvo single and double deckers although what seem to be nice shiny new buses then are now gradually being retired with most of the Wright Eclipse Urban bodied Volvo B7RLEs which replaced the Striders are now passed that age the Striders retired and are on their last legs after being replaced by electric buses last year.

Meanwhile a bit of a personal note, whilst these were some of my favourite buses having first rode one on the 68 service previously worked by AJC Angloblue then Quickstep, its very disappointing I thought that these buses never benefitted from a refurb like Halifax's Volvo B10Bs with similar bodywork. Whilst I loved the YR spec interior it was showing its age whilst some buses in the First Leeds fleet did in fact get a full refurbishment with brand new First Barbie spec seats in place of the old bench style seating including an Alexander RH bodied Scania N113 and a Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympian (the only Leyland to feature such style interior).

Meanwhile the 87 service which this bus depicts was initially ran by Black Prince and was my local service at the time and the only one run by the popular independent. There was some good memories on that route and the fleet being quite diverse with Alexander RH bodied Scanias and Optare Prisma bodied Mercedes-Benz O405s more than anything else but after Black Prince ceased trading did the route see a mixed bag of First's buses being used which were mainly older Scanias. Also when First took over, as history repeated itself with the 68 service, they made changes which really caused misery and possibly confusion with passengers with the route being totally changed whilst later being scrapped altogether. The 87 service would go on until possibly the mid to late-2010s as famously was First's 37674 in Yorkshire Rider colours being used on that route as one of its first ever outings whilst wearing those colours and was also modelled by Corgi on that route too. Speaking of models, it'd be so nice to see an UK based Alexander Strider to be modelled in diecast form as in kit form they are really rare.

22/09/2025

Expressing its way to your screens...

New in June 2016, no.35237 was part of one of the first batches of Wright StreetDecks for First West Yorkshire which was split into three, a batch for Hunslet's 42 service, another for Bramley's 72 and finally Bradford's limited stop X6. All these services have had a long and interesting history.

As with the rest of the X6 fleet, 35237 was painted in this two-tone blue and gold livery and these pioneered this livery in West Yorkshire only to be followed by some Enviro400 MMCs for the X84 (Leeds-Otley-Ilkley-Skipton) service and the X63 (Bradford-Huddersfield) but that service having used repainted Volvo B9TLs.

This batch of StreetDecks was the first time I sampled these at the time new buses. Since these were the first Daimler powered double deckers since the Fleetline (a type I never tested out to my knowledge), I had high expectations as the livery also reminded me of the old AJC Angloblue livery which I knew when I was 5. Sadly the first time I tested them on the 72 was why I dislike these StreetDecks. First trip to Bradford was OK although the bus was quite rattly and vibrated a lot in idle but thought nothing of it. Then after leaving the Broadway I was caught in a nasty downpour and seeing the bus approach the stop was a welcome site... well, not really! The bus having been weeks old started leaking upstairs very badly might I add in the seam between the front upper deck panel and the cove panels so even inside a nice new bus wasn't safe from the rain!

Besides this the StreetDeck has had reliability issues over the years but the type has had an interesting history, with the addition of the Electric powered Electroliner and the hydrogen powered Hydroliner models in 2021 but also the earlier diesel powered ones benefitting from being repowered to all-electric drive thanks to Wrightbus' NewPower facility as a number of 2015-16 built ones already converted to electric drive. Wrightbus have also been known to repower HGVs as well.

Anyway, 35237 is still to this day a regular on the X6 and other routes but is today sporting the Ultraviolet livery in its 2nd repaint in its life.

15/09/2025

WYPTE no.7575 was new in October 1984 to West Yorkshire PTE and was one of a growing fleet of MCW Metrobus Mk2s for the Leeds services. The bus was based at a few depots back then, being worked at Torre Road and Kirkstall for its stay whilst wearing the buttermilk and Verona green WYPTE colours.

But after deregulation the bus was of course owned by Yorkshire Rider who really played about with this bus during their time with this bus prior to First purchasing the company. It was this time when Yorkshire Rider were painting a number of their buses in heritage liveries with a slogan on the sides of most which read 'Building on a great tradition' and 7575 was one of the buses cherry picked to wear the Leeds City Transport two-tone green livery. But that was not all for this bus as the bus was the first in Leeds to be fitted with guide wheels for experimental purposes pending the Scott Hall Road services to use a guided busway. Sadly no MCW Metrobuses had the guide wheels fitted as it was decided that the then brand new Alexander Strider bodied Scania N113s painted in the Superbus livery to be used instead alongside some second hand ex-York Scania L113s with the same body.

Of course by First Bus years 7575 would lose its guide wheels and its Leeds City Transport livery in favour of First's standard Leeds City Link red/orange/yellow/white livery before being ultimately withdrawn a short while later.

The MCW Metrobus Mk2 has been a popular type in Leeds with not just the Rider Group but smaller operators like Geldards and Yorkshire Traction who interestingly were the sole owners of the integral low height examples as most MCW Metrobuses built to low height were carrying the Alexander RL bodywork.

Despite the popularity and like with the predecessor Metropolitan and Metrobus Mk1 the Mk2 Metrobus suffered with corrosion which led to operators like West Midlands PTE and the Rider Group to strengthen the structure round the rear which would reduce the size of the rear window. Such a shame for what was a good bus and the big problem was structural issues.

Production of this popular type ceased in 1989 when Optare bought MCW but the Metrobus would not carry on into production like the Metrorider hoppa bus, instead it would take another three years before Optare made their own replacement of the Metrobus which would be named as the Optare Spectra leaving little visual similarities to the Metrobus. The Spectra was built on the DAF DB250 and the only visual similarity being the rear axles being the same.

These days though there are some Metrobus Mk2s surviving into preservation in particular from West Midlands with no survivors from the Rider Group. But some of Rider's Metrobuses have been made as models particularly by Collectors' Model in 1:50 scale and a sizeable number by Corgi but mainly for their toy range in 1:64 scale and 7575 was one of them wearing the destination X56 Leeds Briggate as seen in the drawing. Corgi also released a Metrobus as part of their more up to date Original Omnibus range and it was the first release of the MCW Metrobus series back in early 2000.

31/08/2025

New in October 1973, this Leyland National was delivered to Ribble Motor Services who were a very keen customer of the Leyland National as they had a very large batch altogether.

The bus was originally numbered 433 and was painted in the NBC livery before latterly being painted in the post-deregulation red livery with grey and yellow lining.

In the early 90s, its time with Ribble came to an end as towards the end of this bus' life it was sent to a small independent operator named Quickstep Travel, based in Leeds who later became part of First Group in the mid 90s. The bus was later numbered 13 for its stay and was painted into this ivory/maroon livery with Quickstep fleetnames.

By the time First bought over Quickstep Travel the bus was withdrawn and leaving only one Leyland National in the fleet as that was the only National to ever wear the Leeds City Link livery.

First Quickstep soon finished in 2006 although the Quickstep name was never hardly used by First during the latter years.

28/08/2025

A large fleet of Plaxton Beaver bodied Mercedes-Benz 709Ds were ordered by Yorkshire Rider and Quickstep and were part of what seemed to be a shared order. No.2208 was one of that fleet and was one of those new to Yorkshire Rider.

No.2208 was new in April 1995 but I have been unable to find photos of when brand new, only photos have been of when it worked with First whilst in this Leeds City Link livery but as part of their Quickstep operations after purchasing the independent operator roughly the same time of purchasing Yorkshire Rider.

These buses worked a lot of lighter routes like the 60 linking Woodhouse Ridge to Leeds City Centre, a route I think I would have used as I vaguely remember back in 1998 I visited my first primary school which was in the Woodhouse area and on the way back home was treated to one of these Plaxton Beavers passing by Leeds University. To be honest I've been on a few of these primarily on route 46/46A and I quite liked these because they weren't on there that much as it was mainly Dennis Darts with Alexander Dash body as the main bus of choice. Plus from what I remember they seemed quite solid despite their size and I also liked the dark interior which a lot of these Plaxton Beavers had across the UK apart from the slightly longer ones.

Like the midi-sized Pointer the Plaxton Beaver was first introduced by small bus/ambulance body builder Reeve Burgess but Plaxton acquired the company in 1980 but soon ceased trading altogether in 1991. Over time the Beaver was a very popular type with small and large operators, some coach operators had some interest in this type too. The Beaver was modelled by EFE and looking on the Model Bus Zone site its clear how successful it really was from being in production in 1987 until the mid-90s when the replacement was the Beaver 2 which carried on into production way up until 2011 but in later years because of its step entry configuration mainly found favour with coach operators only. This version also saw generous success and was also modelled but this time by Corgi which again proves how good the Beaver models were by Plaxton and Reeve Burgess who launched the type.

Also about 2208, the bus lasted longer than most of its batch lasting until around 2015 as a 'snack bus' after spending time with First Glasgow whilst presumably in the standard red livery but in its later years was painted all-white for its time as the snack bus in Clevedon. Its not known where the bus is now whether its scrapped or not.

27/08/2025

Who doesn't love the Coastliner?

New in April to Yorkshire Coastliner in April 2002, 1015 was one of a small fleet of Wright Renowns which were sadly the last Wright Renowns to be built for any operator as the type was discontinued. Blazefield had a thing where they would buy the first and last of certain types of buses, this trend goes as far back as the late-90s with Harrogate & District taking the final Wright Endurance for the 36, in 2000 Yorkshire Coastliner bought their final Alexander Royales, by this time step entry bus orders were very rare and finally in 2003 Harrogate & District bought the first Wright Eclipse Urban which was unique for its green/orange destination display which sadly was changed to just standard orange. I personally consider the Wright Eclipse Urban to be the late replacement of the Wright Renown, both are built on low entry chassis.

Later, 1015 was transferred to Burnley & Pendle which was also under the Blazefield Holdings ownership sometime before Transdev bought Blazefield. The bus had spent a lot of its time on the 28 service.

Later on towards 2010, 1015 was transferred back to Yorkshire Coastliner but was repainted in the Veolia style all-red livery with grey skirt with white lining for its time mainly operating local services in York but can be seen on the Leeds-York services.

Later 1015 was repainted into the previous style of Yorkshire Coastliner livery to match that originally worn by the 11 plated Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TL and were to work mainly shorter workings between Leeds, York and Malton and not to coastal towns. But until the then-new Cityzap service was launched, 1015 most likely fell out of favour and was withdrawn and presumably scrapped after wearing temporary branding for the temporary 'Tadfaster' route which was only out due to the Tadcaster bridge was all washed away by Storm Frank in 2015. So the route branding yes clearly states its for Yorkshire Coastliner but the bus would often be used on workings where it barely reached the seaside mainly ending in Malton area but has indeed been known to operate as far to Bridlington, so in a way the branding can be misleading as a lot of the time the bus would terminate at University of York as well. The CityZap took over these short Coastliner workings between 2016 and 2022. Nowadays the Coastliner is once again the only link between Leeds and York which had been challenged by First York back in 2009 but for a very short time but you could also travel with West Riding (Selby & District) a couple of decades ago when they once linked Leeds and York one time, I recently uploaded a drawing of an Alexander Strider bodied Volvo B10B on that route.

Yorkshire Coastliner launched in January 1990 and has since been the main link between Leeds and the Yorkshire coast via York and Malton. The routes are some of the longest in Yorkshire with presumably the shortest full routes to the coast, Leeds straight to Scarborough alone which that route is the 843 as seen in the drawing but of course in latter years the Volvo B10BLEs worked only shorter workings. Over the years Coastliner has evolved quite significantly which has grown from a very diverse fleet of its time with Plaxton Paramount bodied Leyland coaches, Plaxton Beaver bodied Mercedes-Benz 709Ds, and Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians. They later bought Alexander Royale bodied Volvo Olympians between 1995 and 2000 as the final of these were some of the last step entry buses built for the UK apart from a Volvo Citybus with East Lancs body for Nottingham which used an unused chassis of course!

But in the 2000s Coastliner gained their first low floors in the shape of Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs in 2002 later joined by Wright Eclipse Geminis bodied Volvo B7TLs in 2004. It was here when the Coastliner services would see new buses every few years as in 2008 their first Volvo B9TLs with Wright Eclipse Gemini body would arrive in 2008 and three years later more would come but with Gemini 2 style bodies in 2011. Meanwhile five years later after Transdev bought their high-spec Volvo B5TLs with Wright Gemini 3 bodies, Yorkshire Coastliner's next two batches in 2016-2018 would be built to similar spec with the same style seating and arrangement downstairs however instead of 36 red it was blue, upstairs the bus would have the same style seating but instead of the 2+1 seating the bus would have 2+2 layout but with rear facing seats and fixed tables. Today the services are worked by mainly The Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B5TLs but with one 63 plate Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9TL branded for the service however, Coastliner have recently repainted six other Wright Eclipse Gemini 2s in City Sightseeing livery without being converted to open top of course and can be seen on sightseeing operations whilst also working the Coastliner runs too.