Old Keighley and District services to Wetherby

[Bayum]

Keighley and District and ?Yorkshire Rider (or Black something) used to run bus services to and from Wetherby from what I recall. I may have only been 5 or 6 at the time.

What route did the Keighley buses run? I believe (maybe wrongly) that they were an extension from Leeds to Wetherby, but I'm unsure of the route that they took from Leeds. Was it the route that the now 770 runs?

 

[IanD]

Keighley and District and ?Yorkshire Rider (or Black something) used to run bus services to and from Wetherby from what I recall. I may have only been 5 or 6 at the time.

What route did the Keighley buses run? I believe (maybe wrongly) that they were an extension from Leeds to Wetherby, but I'm unsure of the route that they took from Leeds. Was it the route that the now 770 runs?

There was a service that ran Otley-Pool-Arthington-Harewood-Wetherby, may have started back at Ilkley. May be mis-remembering but I think it went via the Dyneley Arms and Pool Bank rather than direct to Pool (might be getting it confused with one of the Leeds to Otley routes!).

 

[Deerfold]

There was a service that ran Otley-Pool-Arthington-Harewood-Wetherby, may have started back at Ilkley. May be mis-remembering but I think it went via the Dyneley Arms and Pool Bank rather than direct to Pool (might be getting it confused with one of the Leeds to Otley routes!).

Are you thinking of the 923?

https://www.wymetro.com/site/handlers/buses/timetables/pdf.ashx?route=923&code=

That one's never gone beyond Otley as far as I know.

Black Prince used to run the 770. Many companies have run this route including more than one at once.

Did Keighley and District run them as extensions to its Keighley to Leeds 760 route? I'll see if i can find any old timetables.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Are you thinking of the 923?

https://www.wymetro.com/site/handlers/buses/timetables/pdf.ashx?route=923&code=

That one's never gone beyond Otley as far as I know.

Black Prince used to run the 770. Many companies have run this route including more than one at once.

Did Keighley and District run them as extensions to its Keighley to Leeds 760 route? I'll see if i can find any old timetables.

It WAS the 760 Keighley - Leeds - Wetherby and was operated with Olympians including L648-51MYG that were some of the last Leylands registered. Black Prince operated evening tendered journeys

 

[Deerfold]

It WAS the 760 Keighley - Leeds - Wetherby and was operated with Olympians including L648-51MYG that were some of the last Leylands registered. Black Prince operated evening tendered journeys

I had a feeling it was - with the tendered journeys only being Wetherby to Leeds?

The full route must have taken a while - would a driver have time to do a complete return trip within hours?

When Harrogate and District took over running it, it got tagged onto the end of the previous Harrogate to Wetherby service?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I had a feeling it was - with the tendered journeys only being Wetherby to Leeds?

The full route must have taken a while - would a driver have time to do a complete return trip within hours?

When Harrogate and District took over running it, it got tagged onto the end of the previous Harrogate to Wetherby service?

That's right - whilst the evening runs from Keighley to Leeds were commercial and were operated by K&D, the journeys to Wetherby were tendered and operated by Black Prince.

The Harrogate - Wetherby - Boston Spa - Tadcaster/Stutton 78 H&D service was cut back and then extended over the 760 route (basically removing duplication between Wetherby and Boston Spa). Made more sense as the traffic to Tadcaster was very thin.

And yes, whilst the theoretical running time did provide enough for a round trip, I believe that there were issues in case of delays etc. Regular vehicles were H reg NC bodied Olympians that were later joined by L reg Olympians IIRC

 

[IanD]

Are you thinking of the 923?

https://www.wymetro.com/site/handlers/buses/timetables/pdf.ashx?route=923&code=

That one's never gone beyond Otley as far as I know.

Black Prince used to run the 770. Many companies have run this route including more than one at once.

Did Keighley and District run them as extensions to its Keighley to Leeds 760 route? I'll see if i can find any old timetables.

Yes - didn't realise it was still running. I was talking to my old mum a while back and she said it had stopped. She used to use it for a round trip day out with the 760 so it must have been the 760 she was talking about! Should have looked at the Metro first!

 

[Statto]

It WAS the 760 Keighley - Leeds - Wetherby and was operated with Olympians including L648-51MYG that were some of the last Leylands registered. Black Prince operated evening tendered journeys

Was the evening service split at Leeds, think K&D operated Keighley-Leeds BP Leeds-Wetherby?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Was the evening service split at Leeds, think K&D operated Keighley-Leeds BP Leeds-Wetherby?

Correct - I did clarify that a bit later. Seem to recall BP used some of their Optare Prismas at one time on those

 

[Statto]

Correct - I did clarify that a bit later. Seem to recall BP used some of their Optare Prismas at one time on those

Think the through route took just over 2 hours, quite odd route thinking there was that many cross Leeds passengers except maybe on Wetherby race days, natural todays route is split at Leeds & H&D operate the Leeds-Wetherby section.

I've never been on the Leeds-Wetherby section, but been on the Leeds-Keighley section a few times.

 

[Deerfold]

I've never been on the Leeds-Wetherby section, but been on the Leeds-Keighley section a few times.

With the poor Sunday train service from Keighley and the fact I'm a bus ride out of Keighley sometimes it can be a better connection off the bus than the train at Leeds (especially now the bus is half hourly on a Sunday and the train largely hourly) I sometimes catch it all the way in.

I'm not sure I've ever caught the 760 all the way out of Leeds, though I've caught the similar 670 to Bradford many years ago and do the Shipley - Keighley section quite often (the 1833 from London tends to just miss a Keighley train at Leeds and another at Shipley, but arrives in good time to pick up the 760 and avoid the walk across Keighley).

 

[theblackwatch]

I decided to do a bit of reasearch on this via google and discovered that the 760/770 subject has been touched on before - http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=88088 (see post 7 onwards). It's a pity I took very little interest in buses at the time, as they would have gone pretty much past my place of work.

I've found a picture taken in Leeds of a fully branded Keighley & District Olympian heading for Wetherby at https://www.flickr.com/photos/manxphil/6550721041/

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I decided to do a bit of reasearch on this via google and discovered that the 760/770 subject has been touched on before - http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=88088 (see post 7 onwards). It's a pity I took very little interest in buses at the time, as they would have gone pretty much past my place of work.

I've found a picture taken in Leeds of a fully branded Keighley & District Olympian heading for Wetherby at https://www.flickr.com/photos/manxphil/6550721041/

I'd forgotten we'd discussed it before.... must be old agehock:

The photo is one of the aforementioned 1993 Leyland Olympians. Think the older ones were H-RWX (or similar) and were the older battleship grey livery

 

[ASharpe]

With the poor Sunday train service from Keighley and the fact I'm a bus ride out of Keighley sometimes it can be a better connection off the bus than the train at Leeds (especially now the bus is half hourly on a Sunday and the train largely hourly) I sometimes catch it all the way in.

Didn't know the 760 was half hourly on a Sunday now, that will be handy. Lets hope evenings follow.

A few weeks back the 747 started running a bit later at night. Seems Greengates has been lucky with the bus timetables recently.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I used to do the Shipley to Keighley section quite a lot, but never went out to Wetherby, though my next door neighbour used to do the trip fairly frequently. It was easier for her to do that than to get the train to Leeds and then change for the bus. I can't imagine many others did it with her, mind.

On a bit of a tangent, I distinctly remember a Keighley to Guiseley bus, run by K&D just after West Yorkshire was split up, which ran via Shipley, Wrose and Five Lane Ends. I can find no trace of it on the internet these days. Did I just imagine it?

 

[Deerfold]

Didn't know the 760 was half hourly on a Sunday now, that will be handy. Lets hope evenings follow.

Unfortunately I suspect loadings won't justify that. Would be good for Bingley to Keighley to become quarter-hourly. I suspect Sunday shopping is largely to blame for the improvement. It'a actually a better bus on a Sunday than other days as it's the same frequency but faster due to less congestion - so long as you don't need to travel in the morning peak.

A few weeks back the 747 started running a bit later at night. Seems Greengates has been lucky with the bus timetables recently.

And earlier, and 3bph instead of 2bph. First bus from Leeds at 0410 every day is very nice.

 

[ASharpe]

Unfortunately I suspect loadings won't justify that. Would be good for Bingley to Keighley to become quarter-hourly.

It'a actually a better bus on a Sunday than other days as it's the same frequency but faster due to less congestion - so long as you don't need to travel in the morning peak.

I sometimes get a fairly late 760 on a Friday night and they are usually quite busy from Wellington Street, but I suppose that their aren't that many pick-ups after that. (I've recently switched to Grand Central so I'm getting it less often now)

I still often get the first 760 towards Leeds in a morning and think it spends far too much time waiting at some stops.

I avoid the 670 now after just too many bad experiences with it, they used to smell really bad (years ago) and the last few times I had the same driver who would insist that my Leeds Plusbus wasn't valid until the Leeds boundary. He would always let me travel but with a promise to check whether it is valid later, which he never did. He liked a Halifax plusbus even less but let me travel anyway.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

A few scans of documents from the archives!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

A few scans of documents from the archives!

Thanks for those..... blast from the past!!

 

[Deerfold]

A few scans of documents from the archives!

Ah yes, I'd forgotten the ridiculously tight connections in Leeds in an evening. That always seemed to be a speciality where two companies ran a service in bits (or just missing a connection every hour).