First West Yorkshire to introduce service changes in April

First West Yorkshire has announced it is splitting its 51 and 52 services which travel through Leeds city centre from Morley in the south to Moor Allerton in the north to improve punctuality.

Buses will now combine a changeover in the city centre on Eastgate. New service numbers 38 and 39 will operate on the Leeds Eastgate-Moor Allerton section and a through-ticket is also being introduced for customers travelling the whole route. The alteration is being made following extensive consultation with local councillors and customers.

Kayleigh Ingham, Commercial Director of First West Yorkshire, said: “The change to this north-south link through the city will help to avoid delays due to congestion which has affected journey times on such a lengthy route.

“I’m confident that our investment in new technology will also continue to improve punctuality for all services across the region.”

First West Yorkshire has implemented new, state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) scheduling software to improve punctuality.

The changes are part of a package of alterations First West Yorkshire is introducing which includes some withdrawal of services and frequency reductions on underused routes. 

The changes include a number of services run by First West Yorkshire under contract for West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) which are due to expire in April.

Kayleigh Ingham added, “We have worked closely with the Combined Authority to maintain connectivity where possible. Unfortunately some of these journeys are no longer viable given low levels of utilisation and increased operating costs, whilst WYCA has chosen to revise or withdraw some of these expired contracts for the same reasons.”

Passenger numbers remain lower than pre-pandemic levels and although many services are showing good growth, a very small number haven’t shown signs of attracting sufficient users to cover their costs. As a result, services 9, 48 and 87 in Leeds will no longer operate from Sunday 2 April. A new 9S service will provide school trips.

Other network amendments include:

• 9A to serve Seacroft to White Rose shopping centre only.
• 14 to operate between Pudsey-Leeds only with a new hourly timetable. Connections to Logic Business Park on PR2 ‘Temple Green’ which will observe stops along Pontefract Lane.
• 64 WYCA contracted service revised to provide early, evening and Sunday journeys between Cross Gates Centre and Aberford only. Customers can interchange at Cross Gates for Leeds travel. Mon-Sat daytime service operated by Connexions Buses is unaffected.

Kayleigh Ingham added: “We appreciate that some amendments will be disappointing for customers affected. First West Yorkshire has carefully reviewed these together with WYCA in order to limit changes. This action is necessary now to ensure we build a sustainable network into the future and that we balance customer demand with available resources, where there is a clear need for additional capacity.

“It would not be prudent for any organisation, private or public, to continue to operate the same services knowing that the demand across the bus network has changed.”

Full details of all changes can be found by visiting the following webpages:

Leeds: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/leeds/news-and-service-updates/service-updates/service-changes-2nd-april
Bradford: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/bradford/news-and-service-updates/service-updates/service-changes-2nd-april
Halifax and Huddersfield: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/halifax-calder-valley-huddersfield/news-and-service-updates/service-updates/service-changes-2nd

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