west yorkshire passenger transport executive

The West Yorkshire Passenger Traffic Executive (WYPTE) is the executive arm of the West Yorkshire Passenger Traffic Authority (PTA). It was formed on the 1st April 1974. In 2005 the municipal councils of Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Halifax and Huddersfield are represented on the PTA and PTE. At the outset, however, the trade name was known as Metro with a suffix of its district i.e. Metro Leeds for Leeds, Metro Bradford for Bradford, Metro Huddersfield for Huddersfield and Metro Calderdale for Halifax. The colours on the buses changed from being two-tone green for Leeds, blue and cream from Bradford, red and cream for Huddersfield and green, cream and orange for Halifax, to a new uniform livery of 'verona green' and buttermilk. The coats of arms were no longer the emblems for the operator, but were now a circle made up of four pairs of 'WY' were used (presume to represent each district).

Bus fleet 1974-1980

New buses were purchased in large numbers at the outset, with Leyland Atlanteans and Fleetlines being bodies by Charles.H.Roe of Leeds to a specific design for the PTE, with most of the Fleetlines going to Halifax, though a small number of Fleetlines were bodies by Northern Counties. A number of MCW-Scania Metropolitans were also purchased. Single decks were met by short Leyland Leopards with Plaxton Derwent bodies usually for Halifax. The PTE also had a coach fleet which traded as MetroCoach, with the more upmarket coaches having being branded MetroCoach Executive: these were usually Leyland Leopards with Plaxton and Duple bodies , but later Leyland Tigers with the same bodies were also purchased including an some Royal Tigers with stylish Roe Doyen bodywork bought in 1983. The coach livery was ivory, red and brown. In 1979 the last Fleetlines arrived for the PTE (making a total of 156 PTE specified Fleetlines), and towards the end of the year the a new batch of Atlanteans arrived with a revised driving position, which was made higher up, pantograph windscreen wipers, and a new interior decor which was akin to London Transport's with yellow/orange upper and green/brown lower panels and a new moquette (seat pattern), again, simliar to LT's in a brown and orange pattern. This was the new standard interior specification. In 1980 a batch of the new Leyland National 2 was purchased, and ten MCW Metrobuses arrived 5 arriving in April and five in November.

Fleet livery

In 1976 modifications were made to the livery. Originally there were three stripes at the sides of the destination box that wrapped round to the sides of the bus and swept down. This took time to apply, and a trial was made with one thin line. In 1977 a further modifiction was made wehn the lines were removed entirely and the green area at the skirting area of was raised up: thus there was slightly more green. The other change was the fleet name, which was known as MetroBus, removing the district names.

New integrated bus system

During July 1981 MetroBus (the WYPTE) and the National Bus Company (NBC) formed a new integrated transport system for West Yorkshire, known as the "Metro-National Transport Company Ltd". All PTE and NBC buses in the West Yorkshire area began to appear with a new emblem, which consisted of the MetroBus WY's in one box and the NBC "double N" or "N-blem" appearing in another to the right of the PTE emblem, and slightly lower, both boxes were linked to show the integration. They also appeared with MetroBus fleetnames with "The easy way from here to there in West Yorkshire"

Bus fleet 1980-1986

December 1981 saw the last Atlanteans delivered to the PTE with VWW361X: numbered 6361 it carried the PTE standard Roe bodywork. In 1980/1 the PTE initially ordered 22 of the new Leyland Olympians (although two were cancelled) ; also ordered was a further 10 MCW Metrobuses but with the 'new' Alexander RH-type bodywork. They also received two of three long National 2's VWU1331/2X (1331/2) with YWX333X (1333) arriving in early 1982.In December 1981/Jan 1982 the first Olympian 5001 (reg UWW1X) arrived: this bus is now with Chester City Transport as HTU785X. The rest of the batch arrived during March 1982 and around the same time were the ten Alexander Metrobuses. More Olympians arrived from later in 1982-3. January 1983 saw the arrival of 20 MCW Metrobus MK2's and a batch of Duple Dominant bus bodied Leyland Tiger buses, which were dual-purpose. Also in 1983 two buses in Huddersfield were painted to mark 100 years of public transport in Huddersfield with Atlanteans 6299/300 (PUA299/300W), the former being painted in Huddersfield red and cream and the latter in Huddersfield Tramways livery. Later in the year more Olympians arrived, and during 1984 a total of 40 Metrobuses were purchased plus more Tigers. Charles.H.Roe closed down at this time (although was to reopen in 1985 as Optare) and the last batch of Roe-bodied Olympians made a total of 151 Roe-bodied Olympians, with the last complete bus being 5145 (B140RWY); six of the batch were coach-seated for MetroCoach. In 1985 the PTE ordered 15 Olympians with Optare bodywork:

ten arrived, of which five were coach-seated, with TL11 engines, for MetroCoach. One was in four-tone blue and white for the White Rose express linking Leeds and Sheffield ; and three were bus-seated with usual Gardner 6LXB engines and two were convertible open toppers!
the remaining five arrived in Feb 1987.
in 1987 the company bought some minibuses: a batch of Optare-bodied Freight-Rover Sherpas.

De-regulation

De-regulation occurred on Sunday 26th October 1986. The WYPTE bus division was re-named Yorkshire Rider and with it a new livery of dark olive green and cream was used and a stylised "YR" emblem, five double-decker buses were operated in each of the municipal council's colours (already included were the two Huddersfield buses), with words on the sides between the decks saying "Building on a Great Tradition". The bus services and fare/bus pass/timtables division was re-named Metro. Throughout 1986/7 a lot of Freight-Rover Sherpa minibuses were purchased which was the craze during the early days of de-regulation, though bigger MCW Metroriders were purchased in 1987/8. Yorkshire Rider privatised in October 1988, the first PTE to be privatised, during this time 50 new double-dckers arrived, 25 MCW Metrobuses and 25 low-height Northern Counties Leyland Olympians, which featured yet again another interior decor change, with two tone grey panels, and a new moquette being two tone grey and pink with YR emblems on. These were the last order before privatisation. Today Metro still co-ordinates the bus services and produces time tables, deals with the concetionary fares etc.

Railways

It should be noted that in 2005 the Metro also subsidises the MetroTrain routes in its area and beyond.

External link

West Yorkshire PTA website