22 July 2009

Metro Chairman Cllr Ryk Downes lent his support to the two companies that have rescued the 653, Bradford to Harrogate bus service.

After former operator First announced it was withdrawing the 653, Bradford’s TLC Travel Ltd and Harrogate Coach Travel stepped in to run parts of the route.

From Sunday 19 July, Bradford’s TLC Travel Ltd took on the Bradford to Otley section of service 653 with a low floor minibus running every 90 minutes each way. And from Monday 20 July, Harrogate Coach Travel will be running an hourly service between Otley and Harrogate, with two hourly extensions to Ilkley & Guiseley.

“Here are two companies who have seen an opportunity and grasped it, and I wish them every success,” said Cllr Downes.

“It is good news for passengers and the bus industry that we still have small bus companies prepared to step in with imaginative solutions when larger ones seem to have no plans for the future at all.

“We need this kind of entrepreneurial innovation to put some vitality into the otherwise stagnant bus market.

"I hope that this entrepreneurial spirit will be supported by people along the whole route to secure the long term future of the services."

Full details of the new services, along with others that changed over the weekend of 18 and 19 July, are available in Metro’s latest Changing Times booklet.